Shoukajouhatsu Scorching Summer Disappearance
by nekokuro13
Summary: Touhou Shoukajouhatsu - Scorching Summer Disappearance 東方 - 暑夏蒸発 Someone very unexpected was causing Gensokyo an overnight winter. Reimu and Marisa tried to solve the whodunit in question. Got 1K visits and 4K hits in 1 month. Reviews returned.
1. A Gensokyou Summer

**Touhou Shoukajouhatsu - Scorching Summer Disappearance (東方 - 暑夏蒸発)**

_Hi people. This is my first project for Wattpad. It's a Touhou fan-fiction. Please let me know if you like it. Read, like, fan, and review please._

_This is my first attempt in creating a fan fiction, and contrary to what most people think, I think fan-fictions are harder to write than original stories, in a way. One will need to do at least some research about the subject before writing the story, otherwise the story will come out half-baked, and doesn't retain the original flavor. That's what making many fan-fictions hard to stomach for some people (me included)._

_Ah, food metaphors. I'm starting to sound like Yuyuko._

_And oh yes, I don't own Touhou, or the characters. ZUN does._

* * *

It is always calmest before an incident. It's always at the most unexpected moment that an incident will slowly appear, making the heroines realize something is not right. Especially in a closed world like Gensokyo, who will correct things and restore balance, if not they?

But the question that every savior will have to face in the first place would be, what, not to mention who is the cause of the incident. Only if this question is answered will the "how to solve the incident" present itself.

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Gensokyo Summer**

It was a sweltering hot afternoon in Gensokyo, the Land of Illusions. Cicadas cried and birds chirped, but they did nothing to brighten the mood.

A young girl, apparently in her mid-teenage years, was resting under the shade of a shrine. Its architecture was oriental. With dark red eyes, black hair, and a large red ribbon in her hair, her apparel was remotely similar to a shrine maiden's outfit. It was remotely similar to a shrine maiden's outfit characterized by its detached sleeves which left her shoulders uncovered, and a red neckerchief. She was a shrine maiden. The shrine was hers. It was there in the name. Hakurei Shrine.

Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden, was flat on her back. She was wondering if she were too laid back as some people pointed out; but that was not important. At least that's not important now - not at a time like this. No one in their right mind would blame anyone who was resting at a time like this. It was asummer afternoon, for heaven's sake!

It wasn't like there were any incidents happening. For quite some time now, she would only go out for some routine youkai exterminating, although it was usually nothing as violent as it sounds. Usually it was just chasing away some fairies and firing occasional danmaku bursts, both of which usually didn't last more than thirty seconds a piece.

Life could get a little bit lonely in Gensokyo, she thought.

"Rei…mu! Just lazing around ze?"

But then again, maybe not. Reimu gave a tired smile, but quickly wiped it away and gave out a tired sigh. "Looks like you don't have anything better to do either, Marisa."

The witch, arriving on her broom, frowned. Marisa Kirisame, the human magician has golden eyes and blonde hair with a braid down her left shoulder, tied with a green ribbon. She wore a black witches' hat with a star on it, a white apron, and a black skirt. Then she laughed. "You sure?" she asked, stepping off her broom.

"Well, seeing you already have a broom, why don't you sweep the lawn?"

"Hey! Not this broom! And that's a shrine maiden's job!"

"Well with all the energy you have…" Reimu smirked. "At least you could be helpful once. It's too hot just not doing anything."

"Nah, never mind all that, ze. You see, I got watermelons!"

"Suika?"

"How did you know?"

Reimu gave a half-hearted shrug, smirking. But then she frowned. It was awkward to shrug while lying on the floor. Suika was the name of a friendly oni, a demon, who loved to party among humans and youkai alike. It was a silly pun, as her name, Suika could also mean watermelon.

"Well, that oni said some human bloke gave it to her," Marisa continued, brandishing a watermelon in her hand. "Maybe a practical joke or whatever. Hm. Kinda heavy, but looks good!"

Then there was a clicking sound. A girl with black feathery wings, hovering in midair and holding a camera, greeted them. "Hiya!"

It was Aya Shameimaru, the tengu reporter. She had dark red eyes, semi-long black hair, and wore a white blouse with brown leaf-print sides, a black short skirt with brown leaf-print portions, and a Tokin (a kind of cap) with several white puffs of feathers hanging from it.

"That tengu…" Remu growled, quickly sitting up.

Still hovering, Aya continued cheerfully, "I'm taking pictures for a special section in Bunbunmaru! A Gensokyo Summer!" Bunbunmaru was the name of her newspaper. Then she took the picture coming out of her camera. "Ayayayaya! Your bellybutton's showing."

"It what?" Reimu yelled. "I - I mean, give me that picture!"

But Aya acted as if she were ignoring her. Still out of reach, she talked to herself, "Now, let's see, now that I have 12 latest pictures on Reimu and Marisa, maybe I'll look for scoops in the Scarlet Devil Mansion next. Or maybe, Eientei? I heard that the Princess has interesting things to do in sum-"

Her sentence was cut short when she saw Reimu producing a spellcard.

"Well, deadline's approaching! Bye!" And with a rush of wind and a sound resembling a sonic boom, the tengu disappeared. But if one was to look carefully, there was a black dot in the sky, moving away faster than a plane. She was, after all, said to be the fastest creature in Gensokyo.

"I'll kill her if that comes out in the papers!"

But Marisa only laughed. "Aw, maybe the God of Thunder isn't out and about, but you forgot camera-wielding tengus!"

* * *

_How is it? Please vote, review and fan! I'm still a newbie here, so I have low self-esteem, and may stop writing if my project does not get the support needed._

_This is just the very first chapter. Of course not much has happened so far, but things will develop into a master story plan, like dominoes falling in place. I write in short chapters, but please be assured that I already have the full story in mind, waiting to be put into writing. This is not the kind of aimless whatever-goes kind of writing. There is a master story plan. One interesting point? English is not my first language. Engrish? *cough cough_

_Please don't make the yukkuris cry… Trust me. It's not pretty._


	2. Opening Credits

_Hello there people. Nice to meet you again in this installment. Chapter 1 was just the prologue. Let's assume this is a written anime. So now is the Opening Credits (OP), with the hit song from the viral Youtube video, "Bad Apple." I'm not an animator, so you'll animate the scenes with… the wonderful technology of imagination!_

_Ps. I hope your imagination has the latest software installed. (You can skip this chapter if you want)_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Opening Credits**

[Soundtrack: Bad Apple]

Arrange: Masayoshi Minoshima  
Lyrics: Haruka

Vocal: Nomico

(2:00 minutes as opposed to the full version of 3:40 minutes)

(Opening beats) Eirin taking a walk in the forest of bamboos to look for herbs with Tewi skipping behind tired and hot, when a cold wave strikes and everything freezes. An excited Tewi puts her arm around a bamboo but her cheek got stuck to the ice, Eirin left.

(music changes) – A slow motion of a blast of ice shot from Cirno's hand freezing the shrine doorway, and then the three mischievous fairies watching her burst into laughter. Cirno made a proud gesture just as Reimu kicked the door open with an explosion, and the three fairies disappeared, leaving a frightened Cirno.

*** Touhou title screen: Touhou Shokajuhatsu

Nagareteku toki no naka de demo kedarusa ga hora guruguru mawatte

-Even in the midst of flowing time, I feel languid, look, spinning around and around.

_(Flandre activated her spell card, Ripple of 495 Years in front of a frightened Patchouli right in the middle of her library as a huge explosion followed)_

_0_

Watashi kara hanareru kokoro mo mienai wa sou shiranai

-I can't even see the heart that's leaving me, yes, I don't know

_(A crooked scythe clashing with a samurai sword. Youmu swiped just as Komachi leaps to the air and brings down her scythe together with a rain of golden danmaku.)_

_0_

Jibun kara ugoku koto mo naku toki no sukima ni nagasare tsuzukete

-I can't even get myself to move, I continue to be washed down the cracks of time.

_(A black gap opening high up in the sky, just as a wave of cold and chill spread to all Gensokyou, blasting everything around with cold wind, freezing leaves and flowers)_

_0_

Shiranai wa mawari no koto nado watashi wa watashi sore dake

-I don't know anything about what's around me, I'm just me and no more.

_(Yuyuko flying swiftly in a danmaku fight as light bullets rain all around her. Suddenly her eyes widen as a huge pillar of light was reflected in her eyes. The scene changed just before the laser hit.)_

_0_

Yume miteru? Nani mo mitenai? Kataru mo muda na jibun no kotoba

Am I dreaming? Am I seeing nothing? My words are useless even if I speak.

_(Alice stared at her Marisa doll, while behind her the real Marisa stole a book, but Alice, noticing, scrambled after her)_

_0_

Kanashimu nante tsukareru dake yo nani mo kanjizu sugoseba ii no

I'm just tired of being sad, I should go on without feeling anything.

_(Flandre Scarlet released a great laser blast with both hands, but after the laser is gone Marisa appeared behind her and pecked her cheek)_

_0_

Tomadou kotoba ataerarete mo jibun no kokoro tada uwa no sora

Even if I'm given the words I'm at a loss for, my heart just won't pay attention.

_(Sakuya chasing Marisa, jumps and throws knife, but Marisa is suddenly swallowed by a gap midair, as Ran Yakumo looked down at the startled maid)_

_0_

Moshi watashi kara ugoku no naraba subete kaeru no nara kuro ni suru

If I move myself away, if I change everything, I'll turn it black.

_(Aya chats to Marisa while both are flying at high speed. But suddenly the tengu took out a camera and snapped Marisa's picture. The scene focused on the camera lens and then the scene changed)_

_0_

Konna jibun ni mirai wa aru no? Konna sekai ni watashi wa iru no?

Is there a future for someone like me? Do I exist in a world like this?

_(The scene changed to a clock tower at night with Flandre sitting alone in front of the clockface, staring at the moon. The viewpoint slid to face the moon, then the scene changed)_

_0_

Ima setsunai no? Ima kanashii no? Jibun no koto mo wakaranai mama

Is this painful now? Is it sad now? Not even knowing myself

_(The scene swivelled to a different horizon as Shikieiki Yamaxanadu watched a burnt, barren and dark landscape with a thoughtful look in her face and hands behind her back)_

_0_

Ayumu koto sae tsukareru dake yo hito no koto nado shiri mo shinaiwa

I'm just tired even of walking, I don't even understand people.

_(Under the light of a windy golden twilight, Reimu was about to head back to the shrine when she turned around, staring upwards as Yukari emerged from a gap, looking downwards at Reimu while standing on the shrine gateway.)_

_0_

Konna watashi mo kawareru no nara moshi kawareru no nara shiro ni naru?

If someone like me can change, if I can change, will I turn white?

_(Still in the same scene, Marisa runs towards the shrine maiden, Reimu turns towards her for a second, and pointed at Yukari, but the youkai is no longer there, only a pink parasol flew upwards, blown by the wind.)_

* * *

_Of course, being an anime OP, it has tons of clues pointing towards the storyline. Can you guess?_

_I wonder if it's a job well done. You have no idea how straining it is picking up the right scenes for each line of the song. Now my head is ringing with it. To be honest, I'm not really skilled with music and such. And yes, I imagined the scenes myself, it's not something I've seen anywhere. But they are mostly scenes from the coming storyline. Flandre? Yuyuko? Well... just wait and see._

_Anyways, may your imagination never fail you. Mine's a little bit sluggish, but by playing the song and imagining the scene, it works, even if the connection strength is a little bit low. Well, now that the OP is done, let's start the story!_


	3. Reprise of the Scarlet Devil

_Hi again. Just coming to say sorry for all my rambling in the last 2 chapters. Aw, sheep. I'm doing it again. I guess it's a part of me just as much as how love of dumplings is a part of Yuyuko. Okay, maybe it is that chronic. _

* * *

**Chapter 3: Reprise of the Scarlet Devil**

[Background Music: Sakuya's theme, Flowering Night, slow remix]

The mansion overlooking the lake did not look eastern. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Its architecture was European-styled. But for a building its size, it had quite few windows. A clock tower stood erect, one of its most prominent features.

The gatekeeper was sleeping under the relaxing shade of the brick wall surrounding the mansion, snoring softly with an open book on her lap.

Hong Meiling looked human, but was in fact, a youkai. But that was not unusual in Gensokyou. Many youkai, like the infamous Youkai of Boundaries, Yukari Yakumo, had a perfect resemblance to humans with no features to distinguish them from normal humans, except, perhaps, their abilities and age. But then, age was not something that people can see.

Meiling the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had long, straight scarlet hair with both of the braids tied with black ribbons. Her cap and Eastern-looking dress were green. She might not look out of place in a kung fu movie.

Sitting on a bench under the soothing wind, the shaded spot an oasis in the scorching summer, who would blame her for falling asleep? It was one of those de facto things that guards did without having to be put in the job description. Who would blame her?

Sakuya Izayoi.

"Mei…ling," the chief maid in blue dress spoke softly, smiling sweetly.

"Huh?" Meiling opened her eyes. Just in the second that her consciousness returned, she reflexively pretended to smile, as if she was never asleep in the first place.

But Sakuya was faster. Duh, she can stop time. Just crossing her arms over her chest, a bump appeared on Meiling's forehead. Without anyone seeing her hands move.

"Ow…"

"What did I say about sleeping while on guard duty…"

"I was up all night! The fairies were being extra naughty last night! I had to scare away hundreds of them!"

"…and reading manga?" Sakuya continued, ignoring the excuse.

"Oh, this? It's ojou-sama's! She lent it to me."

"And yet you drooled on it," Sakuya's tone relaxed, no longer accusing. She sighed and shook her head.

"Ah! That… that's… Ow!"

Another smoking bump appeared on Meiling's forehead. "Never mind. Stay on guard. Today's lunch will have ice cream for deserts. And…" Sakuya gave Meiling a pointed look. The guard shivered unconsciously. "Those who don't work… don't eat."

Meiling's stomach growled. "Of course," she bowed her head with a tiny bit of tear appearing at the corner of her eye.

Sakuya stared at her sharply.

"Of course! I'm guarding! Hup!" Meiling pushed away her bench and started marching stiffly around the perimeter.

"…" is all that Sakuya could respond. Then walking with purposeful strides through the gates, she sighed once Meiling was out of earshot. "That girl… how could she sleep while it's as scorching as this?" she muttered to herself, wiping her brow.

"Sakuya!" a panting maid hurried towards her. "Ojou-sama called for you!"

Even before the maid had finished her sentence, Sakuya was already stopping time and hurrying through corridors and hallways, passing by maids frozen like statues. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was larger than it looked from the outside.

The mansion tenant, Remilia Scarlet was lazing in an armchair under the shade of the balcony. Even then, the short five-century-old girl vampire in pink frilly dress was wearing sunglasses. A pair of relatively small bat-like wings projected from her back. But she was not alone.

Sitting on another armchair beside her was a girl with purple hair, eyes, nightcap and dress. Purple must have been her scheme color. Her dress resembled a night gown, but Sakuya knew too well that that was Patchouli Knowledge's apparel 24/7.

"Remilia-sama, isn't it too hot this afternoon? I think it's not good for the skin," Sakuya spoke.

"Sunscreen helps," Remilia answered nonchalantly, taking off her sunglasses. "Can you bring me a drink?"

"Iced lemon tea? Or iced lemonade?"

"Ah, that's just perfect!"

"So it's iced lemon tea?"

"No, I was meaning lemonade."

"Okay," Sakuya replied, not in the least bit annoyed. "Oh, and Remilia-sama, ice creams are on the way. Raspberry or vanilla?"

"Mm, sounds perfect!"

"So it's vanilla?"

"No, I was meaning raspberry!"

"Of course," Sakuya only smiled cheerfully, a face expression that every maid needed to master and able to use no matter how annoyed or angry they were. But no, she was not angry. She knew too well Remilia's childish ways. Strangely sometimes they even made Sakuya feel fond towards her master.

"Iced lemon tea and vanilla ice cream," Patchouli requested softly, looking at the silver-haired maid with a blank expression, direct to the point.

"Anything else?"

"No, everything's perfect already, except for all the sunlight," Remilia drawled. "Never mind, bring them quick, I'm having an important chat with Patchy."

Patchouli commented monotonously. "I heard that the hot weather is caused by people from the outside world, something they call greenhouse effect and global warming."

Still sporting her cheerful smile, Sakuya gave a bow and disappeared.

"Ah, now, where were we?" Remilia resumed eagerly, rubbing her hands together.

"Sunlight," Patchouli answered concisely.

"Ah, yes! You were saying that you still have the reagents left from the last time we made the scarlet mist?"

"Yes. But remember, there is the shrine maiden and others that would interfere with our plans, if we were really going to do that."

"What? This summer's heat is ridiculous. Just make the sun disappear for a month or two, Patchy, and everyone will be happy."

"Well, if it works that way…" Patchouli stared at her benefactor. "But I think Reimu will still interfere even if everyone else is glad. Her job _is_ to maintain balance in Gensokyou after all."

"Let them come, I can do with some danmaku fights."

"Well, if it's just one or two people, maybe we can handle that," Patchouli continued. "But since the Kaguya incident, most youkai would not dare to start an incident because others will act against them. Not just the shrine maiden."

"Well, any ideas? Any tricks for our mischief?"

"I don't know. If we are going to repeat releasing the scarlet mist, of course everyone will know it's us."

"How about we change the color?" Sakuya appeared behind them and put down the tray she was bringing. "Maybe if it's not red, then people won't guess it's us. How about green?"

"Ew, a green mist? Looks like some poison gas. How can I enjoy summer with everything looking like that?" Remilia opposed.

"That may be a good point," Patchouli noted. "But… we'll have to put up a base somewhere then, so if anyone searches for the culprit, they'll be led there, and not here. And if the base is found, we'll just destroy it. I don't think anyone will relate green with the Scarlet Devil."

"I don't like green!" Remilia continued to protest. "It's… not my style. Vampires don't go with green!"

"Well, if it's your style, people will trace it back to you, Remilia-sama!" Sakuya gave a piece of her mind. _I wonder if that's just an excuse for her to hates broccolis_, Sakuya wondered at the back of her head. But then, she mumbled an afterthought that just crossed her mind, "Oh dear, but somehow green reminds me of China."

Hundreds of meters away, a sleeping Meiling suddenly woke up with a sneeze, looking puzzled.

"Well, Remilia-sama is red, I'm blue, Patchouli is purple, and China is green, so maybe, yellow?"

"I'll have to look for a suitable dye for the mist then," Patchouli stated serenely, taking a sip from her glass.

"But… any other colors? Other than yellow? Yellow doesn't fit. It's not beautiful," Remilia complained. "It's not vampire-like."

"Well, how about just plain old mist?" Sakuya asked. "No particular color, but the important thing is that it blocks the sun."

"Ah, classic! So how about the base Patchy's talking about?" Remilia gave a satisfied smile.

"I don't know, it's quite hard finding a hidden and secure place these days," Patchouli pondered for a few moments. "There's no way we'll not be discovered if we release the mist from our mansion. With Chugoku's security, that thief Marisa stole twenty four books already just this week. Just this week!" her soft voice rose a little bit, but then she coughed profusely, accompanied by wheezy breathing.

"Patchy?" Remilia asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

Putting a hand on her own chest, Patchouli looked at Remilia with one eye. "Never mind, just my asthma," she said faintly, coughing slightly. "I'll live, at least for another five centuries," Patchouli stated, half-joking. Everything turned silent for a few moments, then…

"Sakuya!"

"Yes, ojou-sama?" Sakuya knew that tone very well. It was going to be an order. She flashed her cheerful smile again.

"I want you to search for a suitable base for this operation!" Remilia exclaimed with a wide grin that showed her fangs.

"Right away!" Sakuya gave a bow and disappeared.

"Patchy! How long will it take to prepare enough material to cover Gensokyou with mist?"

"Depends," Patchouli replied with a small grin. "Maybe two months, maybe two weeks."

"Two months? But summer will be over then! I want it to be done in two days!"

"Mukyu! Two days?" Patchouli's eyes widen.

"If it's you, Patchy, of course you can. Knowledge is your middle name."

"It's… my second. I don't have a middle name." But Remilia just laughed.

Meanwhile, Sakuya walked through the hallway, wondering why would covering the whole Gensokyou with mist so important, while it was already enough and much easier to cover just the mansion grounds, or at least the lake area around it. _But then, this is Remilia Scarlet we're talking about._

She made a mental note to check on Flandre and scolding Meiling before leaving.

* * *

_Bum bum ba dum…_

_How's it? Things are definitely developing. I was just thinking of writing a short chapter, but with the vampire's charisma, it ended up twice as long. _

_Please, comments will be highly appreciated. Pretty please, with Tewi on the top? ;D_


	4. Imperishable Heat

_Hiya. As promised, the next chapter in the story. An important note: No animals are harmed in the making of this story. (Really?)_

* * *

**Chapter 4: Imperishable Heat**

The old-fashioned Japanese mansion was a site hidden from most, in the middle of a bamboo forest, where all directions looked pretty much the same. It was hard not to get lost here. And to search for the mansion was even harder.

But then, the residents were the bunch of people who had hiding and illusions as a part of their daily lives. Well, if Lunarians and youkai rabbits could be considered as people.

Reisen Udongein Inaba stood weakly. The heat was killing her. No, not literally, but she didn't feel like risking to allow that statement become a literal one. The Moon rabbit youkai was completely humanoid except for a pair of long rabbit ears, and perhaps the crimson glint in her eyes. Her hair was purple, as was her skirt, while her shirt was white, with a red necktie. They made her look like some high school student, with rabbit ears.

"Maybe I should loosen a bit," she muttered to herself, and loosened her necktie before pulling the fusuma sliding door open. Her expressions turned into one of bliss when wind rushed in, only to be replaced with one of dismay as instead of cooling, the wind rushing in from outside was even hotter. She sighed in disappointment, her ears flopping down. Even the shade of the countless green bamboos did little to reduce the heat. But then, something caught her eye. "Princess!"

The long-haired figure in pink kimono lying face down on the wooden floor looked like some scene from a Japanese horror movie, if it wasn't already broad daylight.

"Oh dear… Eirin's going to kill me…" Reisen moaned, shivering as she approached the princess cautiously as if she was a dead tiger. "Princess, you… alive?"

A cheeky face poked out from the mass of black hair. "Inaba!" Kaguya Houraisan raised her arms. Then the face flops down again, lost in the mass of hair. "Bring me a glass of water in thirty seconds," a muffled voice sounded from underneath.

"Princess, are you okay?"

"It's much colder on the floor… It's too hot, I can't stand…" the muffled voice replied.

"You need to get inside! Of course it's hot over here!"

"Twenty seconds."

"What?"

"Glass of water. Fifteen seconds." The muffled voice cried out.

"Wha-?" Reisen was taken by surprise, then she scrambled onto her feet, but just as she was going to fetch the drink, a clicking sound startled her rabbit ears.

She turned around to see a beaming Aya Shameimaru. "Hiya! Super Hot Sun Beats Down Moon Princess, how does that sound?" The crow tengu was shamelessly telling her intentions of putting the picture with that caption in her newspaper.

"Get lost!" Reisen shouted with a harried expression.

"Oh, come on, there's no need to be mad," Aya made a mock disappointed face. "I'm just gathering pictures for a new article, 'A Gensokyou Summer!' Well, any interesting activities?"

Kaguya's face reappeared. "Well, Inaba got caught in a snare trap yesterday," she pointed at Reisen.

"Ah, no! That wasn't me! That was Tewi!" _Duh,_ Reisen thought. _And we looked so little alike! Everyone can tell us apart from light years away!_

"And the culprit is?" Aya continued, snapping more pictures.

"The trap was her own," Reisen mumbled.

"Yeah! She got caught in her own trap!" Kaguya replied cheerfully, still pointing at Reisen.

"I said it wasn't me!"

"Ayayayaya," Aya said, lowering an eyebrow, "too bad I wasn't at the scene. The moe-ness of a youkai rabbit caught in a rope snare hanging upside down would've made the best picture of the year!" she exclaimed, albeit sounding a little bit too excited.

"What are you imagining?" Reisen asked skeptically, narrowing her eyes.

"Well, just some more pictures!"

But then, Reisen stared at the tengu sharply, her eyes glowing red. And then she and the princess vanished. Aya just shrugged, and checked the picture coming out from her camera. She smacked herself on the forehead. There was no Reisen or Kaguya in the picture. Reisen had tricked her with her power of creating optical illusions. _Never mind, at least I got the first picture before she realized and started the illusion, _Aya thought. "Well, staying in a place made me feel hot again, so, time to fly again."

"Dear me," a lady with white hair and sporting a red and blue dress appeared at the door. Eirin Yagokoro looked young, despite her being over a millennium old. "Looks like we have a crow infestation," she said with an artificial smile.

Noticing the bow and arrow in Eirin's hand, Aya got the gist. "Bye!' she said hurriedly, and disappeared with a boom, becoming a tiny dot in the sky, but not before throwing a newspaper at the doorstep.

Eirin sighed and picked up the newspaper. "As I thought…" she muttered after seeing the front page. "This summer is the hottest in more than half a century."

"Udonge," Eirin turned to someone behind the door.

"Yes?" Reisen answered, preparing herself for an order, feeling slightly apprehensive. Meanwhile, a limp Kaguya was flopped against the wall, panting.

"I think I'm going on a search."

"Here!" another youkai rabbit suddenly appeared, passing a glass of water at Kaguya. Perfectly humanoid, she looked like a very young girl, with her short stature and frilly pink nightgown. Even her demeanor resembled one, the way she skipped carelessly about. Her black shoulder-length hair was topped by a pair of fluffy rabbit ears, the only exception to her human features.

"Oh," Kaguya smiled sweetly, "I'm not thirsty. Here, Inaba," she passed the glass of water to Reisen.

"Thank you?" Reisen asked with a puzzled look, and gulped down the drink. She frowned as there was a slight metallic taste to the water.

"Tewi, where did you take that glass of water from?" Eirin asked.

"Your desk!" Tewi shamelessly replied.

"It's… a very powerful laxative," Eirin replied, her tone lowering with every word.

Reisen reflexively spewed out what water was left in her mouth. "Pfffff! Nooo… I'm ruined," she fell onto her knees, and started to sob and cry. But then, a thought crossed her mind, _wait, the Princess guessed? And she acted like she couldn't distinguish between me and Tewi!_

"Good thing you didn't drink that, Kaguya," Eirin said with a frown.

"Yeah, good thing," Kaguya replied cheerfully.

"Yeah, sorry Kaguya," Tewi spoke cheerfully.

_They're happy at my misfortune… I feel so worthless… _"Uwaaa," Reisen cried even harder.

"A glass of water?" Tewi asked the Princess.

"Thanks," the Princess answered brightly, gulping it all in.

"Udonge," Eirin turned to crying Reisen. "I can make the antidote, but… Can I ask for some help? That laxative may start having its effect in less than a day, so…"

Reisen wiped away her tears. "Yes?" she asked with a cracked voice.

"Well, I've been thinking… I'm thinking of capturing one or two ice fairies to make our home cooler. Well, maybe just one is enough. Can you do that for me?" Eirin held out a hand.

"Okay!" Reisen agreed immediately, grabbing Eirin's hand and standing up with some difficulty. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she asked, "You're going to give a map, right?"

"Silly, of course not. Fairies are not mushrooms or flowers, you'll have to hunt for them, not just find and pick them."

"But what if I don't find any?"

"Well… the laxative's effects will only last for a week… so I guess you're not too bad with that," Eirin pondered with a thoughtful look.

"I got it, I got it!" Reisen answered, sounding harassed. _So it's success, or nothing? Welcome to my life… _She thought with piercing irony, accepting her fate.

"Well, don't worry, I think I'm going too, but Tewi will be going with me. Maybe she'll make me lucky."

"But then, Master, what if she made the ice fairy lucky instead?" Reisen asked.

"Ah! On second thought, I can't let you go alone! Tewi'll go with you," Eirin suddenly changed her mind.

"Nooo!"

"Haha!" Tewi just gave a wide smile.

"But is one or two ice fairies enough to cool the whole mansion?" Kaguya asked.

"Yep," Eirin answered. "No, I don't need them alive, I just need to dissect them to extract the essence from their magical temperature lowering glands."

"Eek!" Reisen, Tewi and Kaguya screamed in unison.

Eirin chuckled. "No, of course I wouldn't kill them! It's just a short operation… As harmless as my… um…"

"Laxative?" Reisen suggested glumly.

"Um, yes, I guess you can say so, although while the fairies will be operated on without feeling any pain, a rabbit having consumed the Laxative of A Hundred Years will…"

"I got it, I got it!" Reisen answered sounding even more harassed than before. "Wait, a hundred years?"

"Just a week, but I don't know, maybe it _would_ feel like a hundred years."

Reisen burst into tears again. "Uwaaa…!"

Eirin suddenly snapped her fingers as if remembering something. Then she went to her room.

Emerging from the room, Eirin addressed her again, looking at the rabbit youkai with sympathizing eyes. "Udonge, I'm really sorry for you. Here, just in case your stomach ache strikes, some painkillers." She handed a sachet to Reisen.

_A… a gift? Eirin cares for me! _"Okay!" Reisen rose to her feet and wiped away her tears. "I - I know I shouldn't have cried so easily. Tewi, let's go!"

_Wow, she is so easy to please, _all the other three in the room thought at the same time.

_Well, I guess it's better not telling her that the painkiller will only reduce half the pain… _Eirin thought privately. _Somehow the strong painkillers that I needed got mixed up, and I couldn't find them._

Meanwhile, Tewi and Reisen were already outside, skipping confidently.

"Eirin," Kaguya turned towards her mentor.

"Yes?"

"If the essence can cool our entire mansion, can you produce more to cool the entire Gensokyou?"

"Theoretically, by studying the magical pattern imprint and chemical composition of the essence, I guess I may be able to reproduce the essence in copious amounts, enough to make the temperature in Gensokyou to drop if released to the atmosphere. Why?"

"Well, I figured that people will be happier if the summer cools down a bit," Kaguya replied with a confident smile.

"Interesting," Eirin replied with a wide grin.

* * *

_Ice fairy hunt? Maybe Cirno is in danger? I think her fans will make a mass protest for this, I'm so dead. Well, no rabbits or youkai rabbits are harmed in the making of this story! (Really? Do laxatives count?) Ahem. I was aiming to write a short chapter, but somehow bullying Reisen carried me away. She's such a fun subject to tease… and yet pity at the same time._

_ Ganbatte, Reisen! :P_

_Teaser: Next would be (9), the strongest! Maybe._


	5. Unfair Wars

_Well, if you've read the last two chapters, actually I'm making this story with some "whodunit" elements. You see, both Remilia and Kaguya wanted to make the summer cooler. But who'll be the villain? Either one of them? Or both? Or neither? Please vote in the comments! Now, on to the next chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Unfair Wars**

"Cirno? Now where's that hiding spot you told us?" Sunny Milk the fairy asked with her hands on her hips.

"Sigh, she probably forgot," her friend, Luna Child sounded sceptical. "Her icy brain got fried by the sun."

"No it didn't!" Cirno the ice fairy retorted back angrily. "I remembered! There was a red flower growing at the bottom of the bamboo, and right behind the bamboo cluster was a cave on a mound!"

"Maybe the flower wilted! It is summer after all!" Star Sapphire deducted cheerfully. But that comment made the spirits of all three of her companions drop.

"Well, you'll still have to follow me!" Cirno replied with an air of self-importance. "I'm your leader! I'm the strongest! You lost the war!"

All the other three sighed, remembering their previous defeat. In that war, they ganged up on Cirno, even asking help from many other fairies. But then, either Cirno was simply a better fighter, or fairies have their strength level inversely proportional to their intelligence.

Each of the four fairies had distinctive features. Cirno had aqua-colored eyes and hair, icicle-shaped wings, and wore a light pink blouse and a blue jumper dress. Her ice blasts were quite strong for a fairy.

Meanwhile, Sunny Milk, the most energetic of the three mischievous fairies, that is, her, Luna and Star, had light blue eyes and short gold hair braided by the sides of her head. She wore a dress-like cloth which was red and white colored. She had four butterfly-like wings, and the ability to refract light, thus making them all invisible.

Luna Child, the most skeptical of the three, had red eyes, curly blond hair, a mob cap and wore a white one-piece skirt. Her wings were shaped like the crescent moon. She had the ability to silent sound, thus making them inaudible to the ears.

Star Sapphire was often seen as the smartest of the three. She had gray eyes, long straight black hair, and wore blue dress-like clothes with a big blue ribbon on her head. With her sonar, she could detect any approaching creatures with ease.

"You just got lucky last time, want a rematch?" Sunny Milk asked with a slight tone of hostility.

"No!" Star and Luna said at the same time.

"Oh, come on guys!" Sunny persuaded. "We've been following her since morning. Now the sun's all in full power, I know that I get my powers from the sun but… THIS IS TOO MUUUCH!"

Her two companions let out simultaneous huge sighs.

Cirno chuckled, "Now that's going to be fun!"

"Are you sure you can defeat all of us? Ice is weak in the summer…" Sunny challenged confidently.

"Hey, Luna, want some lemonade?"

"Thanks," Luna replied as Star poured some of the drink from her water bottle into her cup.

"Guys! Are you with me?" Sunny cried out.

"Hey, I want lemonade too!" Cirno joined the duo.

"Sunny, want to join us? Quickly, or there'll be nothing left for you!" Star invited.

Sunny let out a huge sigh. "Cut this out, will you guys?"

The other three fairies looked at her with puzzled expressions.

"So… you're not thirsty?" Star asked. And… Sunny somehow settled down for a drink. The four chatted while laughing noisily.

"Hey, Sunny, do you know why is the sun too hot this summer?" Star asked.

"I don't know."

"I don't know too!" Star repeated, giving out a small chuckle.

"You guys wait! When I'm strong enough, I'll freeze even the sun!" Cirno boasted.

"Hey! But then there will be no summer, or spring!" Sunny retorted.

"Yep, then it'll be winter all the time!"

"Guys, did you notice something odd?" Luna asked suddenly with a hint of worry.

"What?" Cirno asked.

"Did anyone of you find the path suddenly looking unfamiliar? I think these past one or two hours, everything looked strange. I'm feeling that we're lost."

"Well, I'm just following Cirno. We're not lost, aren't we, Cirno?" Star asked, albeit too cheerfully.

"Lost? Of course not!"

"Do you know where to go next?" Sunny pressed on.

"Well, I just guessed, I think we'll be there in five more minutes!"

"That's what you said this morning!"

Awkward silence. "Um, I think this situation, us getting lost in this forest of bamboo, is somehow familiar," Star mumbled. "Like it happened before."

_[Start of Background Music: Imperishable Night Stage 5: Cinderella Cage – Kagome Kagome]_

Too bad they didn't realize the danger that was approaching. "Ha! There's an ice fairy, Reisen!" a cheerful voice surprised them. From behind a cluster of bamboo, a youkai rabbit in a frilly nightgown pointed at them, and another youkai rabbit, this one taller and wearing apparel resembling a school uniform appeared.

"Sunny! We're supposed to be invisible!" Luna cried out.

"I'm using my powers! But she can still see us!"

"I didn't even detect her coming! It's that scary rabbit from last time!" Star Sapphire cried out. This was not their first time encountering Reisen. The mischievous trio had met her before in the same bamboo forest with her making the forest an inescapable maze using her wavelength manipulating powers.

"You… you're not going to do anything with us… are you?" the three fairies were huddled together in a corner, cornered and trembling. Somehow that position only made their situation inescapable.

"You three aren't ice fairies, right?" Reisen asked.

The trio pointed at Cirno.

"H… Hi!" Cirno greeted, trembling slightly.

"Hey, Reisen! Let's catch all four! Maybe they can tell us where there are lots of ice fairies!" Tewi suggested.

"Good idea, Tewi!" Reisen agreed. "Sorry guys, looks like it's not your lucky day."

"What do you want with us?"

"Our master wants to dissect fairies alive!" Tewi exclaimed jovially.

"Uh, dissect? What does dissect means?" Cirno asked innocently with a puzzled expression.

"It means she wants to cut us alive! Like watermelons!" Luna replied, panic rising in her voice.

"Waaaaaah!" all four fairies scrambled away from Reisen and Tewi. Like their lives depended on it. Wait, their lives were depending on it.

"It won't hurt at all!" Reisen called out. "Oh, shoot, so it's a danmaku battle then!"

"You can't escape!" Tewi added. "When Reisen gets mad, she'll make the whole forest crazy!"

"Yeah!" Reisen agreed. She did make the bamboo forest inescapable with her powers. "Wait, was that a compliment?"

"No."

Reisen sighed. "Okay." Then she produced her spellcard. "Well, I'm sorry but you all are making me do this!" That was just when the laxatives' effect kicked in, sending tears into Reisen's eyes. She buckled, clutching her stomach. "Oww…"

* * *

_Will Cirno and the trio be okay? If it's just Reisen and Tewi against the four fairies, I'm putting all my chips on Reisen, but it's Reisen and Tewi against the four fairies and… the Laxative of A Hundred Years. (straight face) As awkward as the situation sounds, will Eirin's plan to cool Gensokyou work?_

_Teaser: Next chapter may feature 1.5 ghosts._


	6. Perfect Cheery Bloatedness

_Hi again! 1.5 ghosts, huh?_

* * *

**Chapter 6: Perfect Cheery Bloatedness**

"Youmu! Do you have some more dumplings? I can do with a few more!" the pale lady beckoned.

"Yuyuko-sama! You're eating even more than last winter! You said then, that you eat more in winter because you're cold, but, turns out that's wrong…" her assistant complained, a young lady with dark blue eyes and short silver hair. Her dress is dark green and white, with a katana and a wakizashi (short sword) behind her back. A strange white blob as large as she was seemed to be floating around her. Youmu Konpaku's ghost half, Myon looked like a cross between a cloud and a marshmallow. Youmu was half-ghost, and half-human. "We're out of dumplings."

Yuyuko Saigyouji looked at her gardener with wide quizzical eyes. They were maroon, while her hair was short, pink and wavy. She was wearing a light blue and white kimono with a blue mob cap. Strangely enough for a ghost, she had feet.

The two were sitting by their garden in the Netherworld, in Hakugyokurou.

"Okay, so can I eat Myon?" Yuyuko asked innocently.

"What? Myon is not for eating!" Youmu retorted, hugging her ghost half. Yuyuko seemed to be drooling.

"Eat… Myon… looks… fluffy… marshmallows…" Yuyuko mumbled with unfocused eyes.

"Kyaa! Yuyuko-sama! Wake up!"

"Just kidding," Yuyuko smiled. "Of course I won't eat her. But, I don't know, Youmu, somehow I'm getting hungry at all the wrong times."

"For trying to eat Myon, no dumplings tonight!"

"Of course not! Well, it is summer after all. What's summer without watermelons? How about you go and fetch some from the garden?"

"There are no watermelons left."

"Goodness, did I eat that much?" Yuyuko put a hand over her mouth with a shocked expression.

"Y-yes," Youmu revealed the inconvenient truth. "But t-they didn't produce as much watermelons as last year because of the extreme heat."

"I knew it," Yuyuko sighed. "It was more your fault than mine. Take better care of the watermelons next time, okay Youmu?"

"Yes, Yuyuko-sama," Youmu replied submissively, oblivious to the fact that Yuyuko was diverting the blame.

"Well, now that we're out of watermelons, looks like you'll have to get some more."

"The human world?"

"Yes, Gensokyou. How about Suika?"

"That oni sells watermelons?"

"I'm not sure, it's in her name, though. Oh, and how about some yakitori? I heard that immortal eagle-girl had a stall."

"Mokou? It's phoenix," Youmu corrected.

"Yeah, she had tasty livers," Yuyuko reminisced.

"Not that immortal-liver-thing again!"

"Well, I guess there's no helping it, food is my forte," Yuyuko sighed. "Are you worried about it?"

"Um, Yuyuko-sama, do ghosts get fat?"

At this, Yuyuko burst into laughter. "Why Youmu, that's not a polite question to ask a lady! How about you ask Myon?"

"I don't know, she's always been like this since I was born. It's not like she'll get thinner or fatter, she just grows bigger as I grow up. Oh, and Myon said she's a lady too, so it's not polite to ask her."

Yuyuko laughed. "Well, you'll know when you're a full ghost yourself."

"After I… die?"

"Or you can ask any ghost that's not a lady!" Yuyuko suggested cheekily.

"Sigh, I'm not good with scary things."

Yuyuko chuckled behind her fan. "That's funny, you're being a half-ghost and all that."

"I can't help it if I'm scared!"

"You know," Yuyuko suddenly crawled towards her. Her face twisted into a sinister smile, and whispers in an ominous tone, "you can never expect what's going to happen. What if suddenly from the depths of darkness, while you are alone, a deathly hand suddenly shoots out from behind and grabs your shoulder, dragging you to the Netherworld!"

A deathly hand shot out from behind, grabbing Youmu's shoulder, "KYAAAA!" But yeah, she was already in the Netherworld.

It took nearly half a minute before Youmu could calm herself and finally realize it was Yukari, and for Yukari and Yuyuko to stop laughing.

Yukari Yakumo was the notorious Youkai of Borders, who could teleport by creating gaps or portals midair and emerging from it wherever she wanted. She had purple eyes, long blond hair, and carried a pink lace parasol. Her dress was deep purple, with lots of red ribbons and her head was topped with a pink mob cap.

Stepping out of the appearing gap bound by ribbons at the edges and filled with yellow staring eyes, she patted Youmu on the head. "Poor child, sorry for giving you a fright." Then she turned to Yuyuko. "Can I drop by for a chat?"

"Welcome, Yukari!" Yuyuko seemed happy to see her. "Haven't seen you for a while, especially when it's morning like this. Unfortunately we're out of dumplings."

"Yuyuko-sama, Yukari-sama, excuse me," Youmu said, standing up with her head bowed, her cheeks flushed. "I need to go to the restroom, and after that I need to go out and get what Yuyuko-sama requested."

"Of course," Yuyuko dismissed her with a nod. After Youmu left the scene, she turned to face Yukari. "But, I'm really really sorry, Yukari, you just missed our breakfast by two minutes."

"Never mind," Yukari said dismissively. Then she reached into a small gap suddenly appearing in front of her and pulled out a teapot, two cups, and a plate of biscuits. "They're filled with chocolates. I got them from the outside world. There are a lot more in my home. I hope Chen won't find where I hid them, or I'll turn her to catgut."

"That Nekomata eats biscuits?" Yuyuko asked. "Ufufu, and in the outside world, did you shoplift?"

Yukari laughed behind her paper fan. "Why, that's just plain silly, they have CCTV nowadays."

"See-see-TV?"

"It's a kind of camera that allows them to watch for thieves. Can't risk them seeing my hand poking out from a gap. Well, I'm coming to tell you of something. Someone is heading to Hakugyokurou. And from the looks of that person's expression, I can read hints of bad intentions."

"Who was it?" And when Yukari told Yuyuko who that person was, she couldn't believe it.

* * *

_Well, that's that. More pieces are put into motion, each with their own significance in making a part of the main story. Some are distractions, some are red herrings, and some could be the real thing. What we thought to be true might be just an illusion, and what we thought to be a trick might be the truth. Gensokyou is after all, the Land of illusions. (evil laugh)_

_ Ahem, well sorry, just being dramatic. Somehow in this chapter I got a little bit carried away in bullying Youmu (and exaggerating Yuyuko-sama's appetite), although maybe not as bad as Reisen's case. Looks like I have a bullying side, I needed counseling. But hey, what's torturing one character for the sake of the entertainment of countless eyes? It's for the greater good. (evil laugh) Oh dear, I need a counseling session. Writing has made me more sadistic._

_ Okay, I was carried away being dramatic. Ah! Rambling again! _

_Teaser: Next chapter? The first danmaku battle in the story! Although... it might turn out not as one would've imagined it... Wacky chaos!_


	7. Unfair Wars Is Really Unfair

_Did I say first danmaku battle? Well, an interesting point here, can anyone guess why I named the chapter Unfair Wars? Yeah, a reference to Fairy Wars, but also because, both sides felt that the 'war' was unfair to them._

* * *

**Chapter 7: Unfair Wars Is Really Unfair**

_[Start of Background Music: Reisen's theme: Lunatic Eyes – Invisible Full Moon]_

"That… cursed… laxative…" Reisen whined in pain. Her insides and her mind were screaming with pain, and she would have screamed too if it was going to be any help. Cold sweat drenched her brow.

She fumbled for the painkillers that Eirin gave her. Swallowing two pills, they made her feel better, but the pain didn't disappear. _Maybe it's not enough? _She frantically took some more, and some more, and the pain lessened, but it still didn't disappear. Her hands shaking like crazy, spilling one or two pills to the ground, she took some more, but then she realized that she was already out of painkillers. "Never mind! Once I get you all I can go home!" Wincing in pain, she produced a spell card, her feet shaking.

_No time for Easy or Normal, even if they're just fairies, I'll have to use Lunatic!_

But then, the time she took to recover was just the time needed for the fairies to put some distance between them. "Don't try to hide…!" she called out. "I know where you are, each of you!" Her ears twitched. Then she turned around. "Ah! Gotcha!'

"Eek!" Luna cried out. _She has eyes behind her head!_

Trivia moment: A rabbit has a nearly 360 degrees field vision. Not sure if this applies to moon youkai rabbits.

"M-m-moon Sign, Lunatic Ra-!" Even before Luna could finish her spell, Reisen had already shot her using a non-spell with bullet-shaped danmakus. The blast blew the little fairy a few feet away, landing head first on a heap of grass.

"Success!" Reisen cheered. But then, Luna stood and the spell card erupts. A rain of light danmakus, filling the air like a swarm of fireflies started to flow towards Reisen. "Wha-?" Reisen was surprised, but one will need more than that to catch her off guard.

It appeared that the extra required was the sharp pain of her stomachache returning. "Waaaaa!" she howled in pain, doubling over, hitting quite a lot of the bullets. But somehow with her struggling in pain, her wavelength manipulating powers went haywire, sending the light attacks ricocheting like crazy. Meanwhile the spell card she herself was about to launch exploded into a rippled attack of bullets, adding into the chaos.

"Double K.O?" Sunny asked a terrified Star.

Both Luna and Reisen seemed to be knocked out cold. The rabbit's clothes were tattered in places, her face and limbs all covered in dirt.

"Hush!" Star put her hands over Sunny's mouth. It was like a miracle, but they somehow found the cave that they were looking for in the first place. But they were not sure if a mere miracle was enough. Turned out that it was more of a hole than a cave.

And holes were a rabbit's speciality…

"Hello there!" Reisen's head poked in front of the hole. Her hair was a mess, and her face had a crazed look in it. "Looks like I have an ace in the hole!" Then she started to laugh like a maniac. "Two aces!"

_She completely lost it! _the two fairies thought at the same time, hugging each other in fear, trembling like jelly in an earthquake. And a spell card flew limply by their side.

"Bye-bye cruel world!" Star cried out with tears spilling out from her eyes.

"I don't want to be a watermelon!" Sunny howled with a cracked voice.

"Ahahahahaha… Fire! Fire in the hole! Ahhhahahahahaha!" Reisen shrieked, her eyes unfocused, laughing like mad. (When I say laughing like mad, try referring Higurashi's Rena)

Enough said. Double triple quadruple boom. The spell card "Mind Blowing" was devastating in closed spaces. For the fairies' case, it practically made an instant grave. Yeah. Mind Blowing. Nice name.

Reisen was still laughing, even if her stomach was hurting like crazy. Somehow that was the only thing preventing her from being defeated by the pain. "Tewi? Did you see that? Uh?" Sanity returned to her eyes. "Wait, Tewi? Where are you?"

Another jolt of pain, fiercer than before, struck. Reisen howled in pain. And in Bamboo Forest of the Lost, no one could hear her scream.

Except for the ice fairy flying in confusion overhead. Reisen's ability of manipulating wavelengths had made everything around to turn crazy. Her howl seemed to come from every direction, creating a very, very disturbing effect, especially if you were a fairy who saw a youkai rabbit as thrice your height. And that said youkai wanted to chop you like watermelons.

Okay… a rabbit howling. That was plain weird.

Even the bamboo forest was all out of whack. The bamboo plants suddenly seemed to shift, once to the left, then to the right, then left, then right, even once turning upside-down, then they suddenly turned red, a mixture of red and green, then blue.

Bump! Cirno hit a bamboo plant that wasn't supposed to be invisible. A smoking bump appeared on her head, and she retreated, only to hit another invisible bamboo plant. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, (she had terrible luck!) and one ice fairy, no matter how strong could only take quite a few whacks to the head at flying speed, no matter how empty or thickskulled said head was.

_I need that ice fairy! _Reisen cried out in her mind, trying to make her body listen. Her limbs were shaking. Her eyes were full of tears. _No! I need the restroom!_

Thud. Cirno fell besides her, her eyes having a dizzy look.

_Lucky! Okay, Reisen! Just make the finishing blow and you can go and do your busi-_

"Waaaaaa!" Cirno screamed in fear and ran away, shooting ice blasts at the rabbit. Then it became a frantic chase. Rabbit chased fairy. Fairy ran away. Fairy hit a bamboo plant. Fairy fell, but got up and ran away. Rabbit chased fairy. Fairy ran away. Fairy hit a bamboo plant. Fairy fell, but got up and ran away. Rabbit chased fairy. Fairy ran away. Fairy hit a bamboo plant, hard. Fairy fell, but got up and ran away even faster.

"This is unfair! What's your head made of?" Reisen shouted after Cirno.

"They said, use your head!" Cirno replied without as much as a thought. "Uh, oh yeah!" she activated a spell card.

Diamond Blizzard. It was a raw fury display of ice shards raining towards her pursuer. But much to Cirno's dismay and surprise, Reisen ran straight through the hail, even got hit by a few of the shards, and blew a spell card of her own.

"Nothing can hurt more than my stomach!" Reisen exclaimed proudly with a hint of fierce satisfaction. She looked like a wild castaway, the state her clothes and cleanliness were in. But then her stomach growled. "Oww… why did I remind myself…" she moaned, her foot tripping, and she skidded face down onto the undergrowth.

Her spell card, Tele-Mesmerism materialized as two lines of bullets shooting from both sides of Cirno. The ice fairy was cornered.

"Waaaaaa!" she let out her final scream.

"Eh?" Cirno's scream ended with the note of amazement.

She had frozen the bullets with the ice she released all around her in desperation. She was saved! Motivation increasing, she froze even more of the bullets heading towards her, all the while retreating even further from her enemy.

"Now, remember me, rabbit nee-chan! You can never catch me! I am Cirno, the strongest!"

"No…" Reisen moaned. She was really at her limit.

But then her ears pricked. The sound of running water. _There's a river ahead! _The realization gave her a sudden inspiration, the long-awaited ray of hope. She flashed out a crooked smile.

And Cirno was startled by the sudden change. "Wait, won't you give up already!"

But Reisen didn't say anything, she just lunged at her. Cirno flew away, but Reisen chased after her, running at a nearly impossible speed.

"IT'S A ZOMBIEEEEE!" Cirno screamed.

Trivia corner: They might not look like it, but some rabbits can run up to 45 miles per hour. That's 72 km per hour, as fast as a car! Not sure how fast can a moon rabbit run, though. And a moon rabbit that had just consumed the Laxative of A Hundred Years… (author tries to maintain a straight face)

In front of them was a rushing stream. Just as Cirno flew over it, Reisen leaped to the air, and everything seemed as if it was in slow motion. Cirno's expression of fright, as she turned around midair, to see Reisen's twisted face leering savagely at her, the rabbit's arms shooting out to grab her, while releasing a formidable wave of danmaku, and Cirno frantically using all her ice powers trying to freeze the incoming bullets, and…

Splash!

_Touchdown! _Reisen fell into the water empty handed. But somehow to her, it was ultimate bliss. The cool rushing river flowing against her body, and the feeling as if a burden had been taken off her…

_I'm desperate! I failed! But I'm saved! Oh wait, what am I putting my head in the water for?_

She got up, gasping for air. In front of her, Cirno dropped down onto the far side like a rock, her eyes spinning after being hit by a stray bullet straight on the forehead. Reisen gave a huge sigh. "At last!" she exclaimed triumphantly, lifting her hands in ecstasy, sitting in the rushing stream.

But suddenly Cirno twitched, and stood up hurriedly.

"Wat'z your haeed maed ovv?" Reisen asked with a tired voice. Very tired. Emphasis on very.

"You're… not going to chase me anymore?"

"I gaevve ubb!"

"Ha! Told you I'm the stron-," but her sentence didn't finish as she was knifed right in the head.

"Oh, it's Kaguya's rabbit," Sakuya the maid said with a curious expression. "Reisen, right? Were you going after this fairy?"

"Yeah! Thanks!" her spirits seemed to return. She had succeeded! She gave a cheerful smile.

"Well, you look a real mess," Sakuya commented. "What happened?"

"Um…" her cheeks flushed. "Nothing! You're better off not knowing. You?"

"I'm running an errand for my mistress. She can't cross running water."

"Oww…" Reisen doubled over, her stomach pain stabbing savagely again at her insides.

"Is anything wrong?" Sakuya asked with a concerned look. Then she approached the stream and took off her shoes and socks.

Reisen shouted, the pain apparent from her voice, "Don't come here! Don't come heeere!"

* * *

_Sigh, there you have it. That Tewi, it ended up a one-rabbit-show after all. Laxatives! The horror! Oh em gee it did end up crazy! I wonder, any favorite scenes? Or line? Pray tell in the comments! Dear me, I felt like I was being extra mean in this chapter. Poor Reisen. At least she can… Um, she ended up happy._

_Teaser: Next chapter? Maybe some shopping? And some chopping? I.e. katana swinging spree?_


	8. A Chopping Spree

_Dun dun dun dun…_

* * *

_**Chapter 8: A Chopping Spree**_

It was still morning when Youmu emerged from the portal connecting the Netherworld and Gensokyou. She wondered where to start her shopping.

She started to walk towards the human village. It was probably easier to search for the groceries there. She held out her shopping list. Satisfied that she had not left out anything, she continued her walk.

At least, in the human village, the people there had become accustomed to seeing her with Myon. A ghost in broad daylight wasn't as scary as a ghost in the dark of the night. That was how scary things work. People were more scared of the unknown. She sighed, as probably that was exactly the reason why she was so fearful of ghost stories and yet could hang around Lady Yuyuko like it was nothing, or attend a banquet of ghosts.

Glad that no youkai attacked her on the way, she arrived at the village. Curious eyes flitted, following her steps, but Youmu had become accustomed to them. She was no more a stranger to them than Keine the were-hakutaku, the teacher who could change into the mythical beast every time it was full moon. Although, to be exact, the change wasn't more than an addition of two horns.

Filling her bag with groceries and paying the sellers, she moved on from stall to stall. Even though it was still morning, the sun was already making her neck prickle. Every once in a while, she wiped the sweat forming on her brow. It took her less than an hour to complete her task, but there were two items remaining: Watermelons and yakitori.

True, numerous stalls sold watermelons at that time in the summer. But she resisted the temptation to buy from them. Why? _Yuyuko-sama's instructions was specific. Suika! I need to get watermelons from Suika! _She would not question an order like that. It was discipline, and a swordsman, um, a swordslady without discipline was not worthy of the sword.

But then, the problem lied in locating the oni. She could've been anywhere in Gensokyou. What were the chances of her finding that oni in big, vast, Gensokyou? Wondering where to head, her shoulders brushed against Sakuya. The maid was surprised to see her.

"My, my, a ghost in broad daylight?" Sakuya commented.

"Ghost? Where?" Youmu asked, looking genuinely surprised. "Oh," she blushed, suddenly feeling silly. "Mind your own business."

Sakuya gave a small smile and shrugged. "Well, is your mistress up to mischief recently?"

"Yuyuko-sama? No, of course not!" Youmu replied, feeling annoyed. "Uh, well, she was getting hungry more often recently."

"I guess the Hungry Ghost Festival is approaching?"

"Uh, Sakuya," a thought crossed Youmu's mind. "Have you seen Suika?"

"The oni? I saw her sleeping on a tree south of the village. You're looking for watermelons?"

"How do you know?"

Sakuya shrugged. "It's in her name. Well, Rinnosuke gave her a cartload of those last night in exchange for some of her sake. She was… slightly offended, but took them anyway. It was not like she had anything to lose in the first place," Sakuya referred to the gourd that the oni was always carrying. It had the ability to change water into sake given enough time, thanks to the sake worm residing in it, a creature that could perform the said change. Meanwhile, Rinnosuke was the name of a vendor who had an antique shop selling various things and trinkets to youkai and humans alike.

"Okay, thanks!" Youmu replied hurriedly. The sun was after all, getting higher and higher. If she was late, maybe the oni would've awakened and wandered somewhere else.

She reached the south of the village in just a few minutes. But she only realized then that she didn't ask Sakuya enough details on where the tree was located exactly. Not wanting to risk failure, she quickened her pace, scanning every treetop. And there, up on a branch of a pine tree, was the oni, sleeping soundly with a cart of watermelons beneath her.

The oni had has brown eyes and long ginger hair tied with a chain with a blue cube on the end. The pair of long and pointed horns coming out from both sides of her head, decorated with red and purple ribbons was beyond obvious. Her white singlet was a little bit tattered, and she also sported a long purple skirt. As with every oni, she had chains on her, one on each wrist from which a pyramid and a sphere was hanging.

"Uh… Excuse me?" Youmu inquired. But the oni gave no response, so she took out her sword, and made a series of thuds on the tree trunk with the pommel, sounding like knocks on a wooden door.

"Eh?" Suika's eyes jerked open. "Coming!" she shouted in a sleepy manner, and got up from her 'bed.' She must've been imagining that she was in a house, for as soon as she got up, she tried to stand on the 'floor.'

Air was not meant to be stepped on.

"Waaaaah!" the oni screamed as she fell through the air.

Bump.

Her head bumped against Youmu's at the speed of gravitational acceleration. And Suika being an oni with ridiculous strength wasn't helping either. Instant KO.

"Flying… Yuyuko-samas… circling… my head…" Youmu murmured while flat on her back, her eyes spinning.

"Hey, careful with that sword!"

"Careful with that horn! You could've poked me in the eye!" Youmu retorted with a strangled voice, the pain sending tears into her eyes. "Oww…" She felt like being hit by a hammer. No, an anvil. A bump the size of an egg on her head looked like it would stay for quite a while.

"Sorry, can I help you?" Suika asked, back to her usual cheerful self.

After a few moments of Youmu pulling her thoughts together, "Can I have some watermel-"

"No way! Not again! Why does everyone keep asking for watermelons from me! I am Suika! Suika! Not watermelon!" Suika bawled. "Ow… my hangover. Um, sure? Take as many as you would like." She returned to her friendly stance.

"Thanks? Can I take the whole cart?"

"Sure! At least I can say no when people come asking, Suika! Suika! Watermelon Suika!" she said along the tunes of _'Eirin, Eirin, tasukete Eirin!' _a recent meme in Gensokyou that made the Lunarian pharmacist frown in disapproval.

It turned out that getting the watermelon part was easier than Youmu expected. Pushing her cart, she realized that it was more than half empty. Maybe many people did take in the pun and looked for Suika to get free watermelons, as Rinnosuke might have predicted.

Which was really weird logic. _But then, this is Gensokyou._

Youmu looked at the bottom of her list. Mokou's yakitori. She hoped that the immortal will be cooperative enough. She put her groceries in the cart.

Pushing the cart, which was lighter and easier than she expected, Youmu headed into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

Well, if the watermelons were too many, she could always offer the remainder to the countless ghosts of the Netherworld. And plant the seeds. Maybe she should ask someone on how to build a green house so that she can tend the garden all year long.

That was when she met Keine Kamishirasawa, disrupting her stream of thought. The were-hakutaku teacher seemed to be in a hurry, her long silver hair a blurry flash as she passed by Youmu. "Oh dear, I'm late, I'm late! Should I be hiding records of my lateness? No, that's a question of ethics! Ethics!" she said, speaking her thoughts aloud. She had a small square hat with glyphs inscribed on it and her dress was dark blue with short sleeves.

"Uh, excuse me, you're Mokou's teacher, are you?" Youmu called out.

"Uh, I'm in a hurry here, um, I mean, yes," Keine stopped in her tracks and turned to face her.

"Is she selling yakitori today? My mistress wanted some."

"Oh, it must be that article that tengu wrote," Keine sighed. Once, in an interview where Aya inquired Mokou about a forest fire, Mokou stubbornly defended her innocence, insisting that she was just a yakitori stall vendor. "Well, I'm not sure about that, but, I think I saw her in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Go right there into the forest," Keine pointed towards a path leading into the jungle of bamboo thickets, "and second to the left, if she's still there."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Bye!" and Keine was gone.

Youmu, realizing that she might just be very lucky to have Mokou so near, quickly pushed her cart onto the narrow path leading into the bamboo forest. Following Keine's direction, she soon found herself pushing the cart downhill on a steep path, the cart wobbling and shaking violently on the rough terrain. _Wait, is this actually even a path?_

And right in front of her, Mokou incidentally was bending down tying her shoelaces.

"Sorry! Make way a bit!" Youmu called out after her.

The immortal turned. Her dark red eyes widened as she saw the cart approaching was going to crash into her. But it stopped just a meter from hitting her. Youmu was still in control of the cart. "Is this another assassination attempt?" Mokou asked, eyes narrowing.

She had ankle-length violet hair tied with paper charms, like big red and white ribbons, and wore a light brown shirt and dark red overalls that were randomly decorated with fire charms.

"No, it's not!" Youmu denied. "Sorry. I was looking for you."

"What could you possibly want? You're not some troubled human getting lost in the forest, right? The exit's over there," she pointed at the direction Youmu came from.

"No, that's not it. Do you have yakitori?"

Mokou's eyes widen in apparent wonder. "Um, stall's closed for now. Come back tonight," she said uncooperatively, turning and walking away.

"Wait!" Youmu hurried after her, but her letting go of the cart made the cart zoom down the slope, narrowly missing Mokou, who stared back at Youmu with angry eyes, but the cart hit a cluster of bamboo, and made a rain of angry red ants fall on the two.

"Kyaaaaaaaaah!" Two simultaneous screams.

Youmu was the worse one off, as Mokou simply burst into flames to get rid of the ants on her.

"Thanks for the help… Ouch," Youmu thanked Mokou a few moments later, putting her dress back on over her undergarments. "Sorry for the disgraceful accident." Mokou only responded with a huge sigh.

"Follow me," Mokou walked away as if going to lead her along the path.

"Wait a second! I need to get rid of the ants getting on the watermelons!" Youmu replied. A burst of flame from Mokou's hands, and problem solved. "Um, thanks."

Mokou didn't reply, she just gave a curt nod. The two soon reached a traditional Japanese-looking home. Not really a big house, but just modestly sized and decent enough to be called a house. "How much yakitori do you want?" Mokou asked.

"As much as possible," Youmu replied. "Enough for a banquet of ghosts."

"Well, as long as the dead pays…" Mokou shrugged. "Uh, give me time until evening. Then come back here."

"Um, can't you make it quicker?"

"I got to start from scratch, I have the ingredients, but I haven't prepared them yet. It's quite a lot of work for one person."

"So let me help then!" Youmu suggested. "At half price," she added in an undertone. Mokou only stared with an expression that was hard to read.

"Go behind the house and get some meat," Mokou replied dismissively.

Youmu went as told. She was expecting to see some meat stacked against the wall, or in a basin or something, but… All she saw was a pack of chickens, pecking and scurrying around. "She's got to be kidding!" Youmu whispered to herself. "Ah well," and with a slow and deliberate movement, she pulled out her katana. "Time for battle."

Boom. Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck. Crash. Swipe. Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck. Splatter. Squawk! Repeat the series of sounds thirty-seven times.

A few moments later, Youmu returned with a satisfied expression. "Done already?" Mokou asked with a wide-eyed look. _Is that blood on her cheek?_

"Wait, I need to clean my sword."

"You used your katana?" Mokou asked with a quizzical look.

Realizing something could've been wrong, she hurried to the back of the house, and… her jaws dropped. "What've you done? It's a poultry massacre!"

Some of the dead chickens were still smoking.

"Well, I guess to save time… And what was not settled by the sword, I settled with danmaku…"

Mokou facepalmed. "I didn't say all of them… or this mess! You went amok on a beheading spree?"

Youmu nodded, the look in her eyes as if it was the sensible thing to do.

An hour later, some of the chickens were already grilling. "Mokou-san, don't you have any more grills? Won't it take a long time with just one?"

"Sh-shut up! It's not like business is booming!"

"Well, yakitori is best served hot. Can't you just follow me to Hakugyokurou and grill there? Oh, I forgot, you can't go there."

"You're a ghost and I'm immortal, so we're natural enemies, right?" Mokou smirked. _And yet here we are, grilling yakitori, _Mokou thought with a sigh. As an immortal, she couldn't enter the Netherworld, because to go there was like dying.

"Um, I guess that's enough. I'll just bring the chickens with me. I'll grill them back at home myself," Youmu stood.

"If you can grill them yourself, why did you come all the way here then?"

"A sword warrior learns by sight. Now I've seen you make yakitori, I now know how to make my own. Besides, I'm not sure it's proper to serve Yuyuko-sama cold yakitori."

A few moments later, Youmu left the scene with her cartload of watermelon, groceries, and a heap of pwned chickens.

"Sigh, there goes my future business prospect…" Mokou groaned.

Meanwhile, Youmu found herself losing her direction in the bamboo forest. It was as if the paths had switched, while she actually remembered the path very clearly when she came here.

Then a very disorienting thing happened. The whole forest turned crazy. The scene changed color, from green to blue, then red, then a mixture of red and green. Bamboo thickets shift from side to side, even turning upside down. It was as if her senses were going crazy. Then a strange howl sounded, coming from all directions.

It was too much for Youmu. She shrieked in fear, pulling the cart with all her might, trying to escape the maze of horrors. Bump, she bumped against an invisible bamboo cluster. Scrambling like mad, she sprinted, only to hit another invisible thicket one second later. And another.

In utter confusion and not knowing what to do, she drew out her sword. "Don't come near! Don't come neaaaaar!" she cried out in pure fear.

The howls continue. She swung her sword madly, bringing down an entire bamboo cluster from just one swing. Panicking, she started to cut her way through the illusionary forest like a stampede of elephants at an amazing speed. One hand pulling the cart, another hand swinging madly, cutting down bamboo thickets as if they're butter, a feat unthinkable for a girl with a frail frame like Youmu. In normal circumstances. But obviously, Youmu's katana, Roukanken wasn't a normal sword.

In front of her, a mound of earth stood, and from amidst the ruins, a small, grimy and twitching hand poked out. And Youmu was heading right towards it.

"Kyaaaaa!" she tried to stop, but her foot slipped, while inertia carried her cart towards her, over her and over the ruined mound of earth. But given the scattered state her mind was in, Youmu did however manage to keep in mind not to let go of the cart, so she chased after it, stepping over the mound and continuing her slashing way.

_One moment of silence for Star Sapphire and Sunny Milk. Died from a rabbit attack and being run over by a cart of watermelons. (Really?)_

_Please don't make anything appear, please don't make anything appear, _she prayed non-stop. She came out into a wide path, and pushed her cart like mad along it.

She arrived at a dead end, but she drew her katana once again, chopping the obstruction down.

To her utter relief and amazement, she emerged in a clearing, by the Human Village. She took a few moments to pull herself together. Then she fell on her knees, her head touching the ground. _What was that just now?_

She never found out that she was being scared the life out of her by a rabbit with an upset stomach. Reisen never told her.

"Nee-chan?" a small voice called out.

Still panting and breathing hard, Youmu looked at the owner of the voice. It was a young child, a girl of perhaps nine years, with flowing black hair and deep, piercing blue eyes. "Did something scare you?"

"I can't help it…" Youmu moaned. "I'm not good with scary things…"

"Does the future scare you?"

Youmu lifted her head to look at the strange girl asking the strange question. The girl was dressed in a one-piece dress resembling a pale blue nightgown. "Why would it scare me?"

"Because…" the girl's voice ended in an ominous tone. Her blue pupils dilate, becoming a dark hollow window. "I think the future said, nee-chan is going to be nee-chan's mistress downfall," then her pupils returned to normal. "Bye!" the girl turned and ran away.

"Wait, what?" Youmu responded, but the girl was already far away. As much as her lungs were burning right now, Youmu got up, and sped after the little girl. The mysterious girl passed between two houses, and when Youmu reached the gap, she was no longer to be seen. Youmu stood up, feeling more than a little bit troubled by the words.

* * *

_Imagine a Touhou danmaku game where you behead and danmaku chickens. Messy. Youkai Chicken Invaders? Got to admit, I really got carried away while writing this chapter. (Did you notice an OC in this chapter? Pretty obvious, I know. I'm thinking of using that OC either in this story, or another story after Scorching Summer Disappearance.)_

_Teaser: Now that all the pieces are arranged in place, time to start the incident!_


	9. Scorching Summer Disappearance

_*Plays OP again. Trying to get the feel._

* * *

**Chapter 9: Shoukajouhatsu – Scorching Summer Disappearance**

Marisa and Reimu sat, enjoying the crimson slices of watermelon that the magician brought. Sweet, cool and succulent, they were just too perfect for a sweltering afternoon. "So, any interesting news, ze?" Marisa asked, taking another slice on the square kotatsu table.

"No," Reimu answered briefly. They were killing time, taking it easy in the Hakurei Shrine, awaiting the evening, when the sun would be less fierce. One could do nothing in a hot afternoon like that.

"Patchy told me this summer's abnormal. It's something to do with humans outside Gensokyou producing smoke in their daily lives that makes the whole world hotter."

"Sounds a lot like that vampire's red mist," Reimu replied with a shrug.

"It's different, ze! Mist cools. Smoke heats."

"I know, I know," Reimu took another swig of the orange punch she made earlier. "It's not like it's something I could do anything about. Shouldn't you ask Yukari if she can make it not affect Gensokyou?"

"That youkai had a thing for you, you go and ask."

Reimu sighed.

Suddenly there was an abrupt change in the air. It felt as if the hot air was suddenly pulled inward by a strong force, like water in a tub when the plunger is pulled. The sun's rays weakened, and stung no longer. The blinding orb of light was now a lot dimmer, like how it looked in winter. A cool breeze remained.

"That just now felt weird," Marisa commented, her eyes wide, scanning the horizon with a curious expression.

Even Reimu seemed concerned. "Yes, yes it was," she agreed. But they went on with their snack and relaxed anyway.

As minutes pass, the temperature seemed to drop slowly but surely. By evening, the sky was already no longer blue. Grey clouds marched from the horizon, and the wind was even livelier than before, bringing a slight chill with them.

"Maybe it's a storm coming?" Marisa asked.

"Then go home before the storm starts," Reimu replied simply.

"Nope, I don't think so," Marisa objected. "It's always not a good idea to fly in a storm cloud. One hit from a lightning, and whether I'll survive or not, falling from over a mile high is just…"

Reimu just shrugged.

"Hey, Reimu," Marisa started with a mischievous ring to her voice.

"What?"

"Well, now that it's no longer as hot as before, shouldn't you be sweeping the shrine's lawn?" she asked pointedly.

"No, the wind will probably just scatter the leaves again. Besides, a storm may come tonight. I don't want to have to clean up twice."

"And all this time, you're complaining of no visitors?" Marisa teased. Reimu covered her ears. "How will you ever get donations?"

"Are you done yet?" Reimu asked, still covering her ears.

"There's many more where that comes from," Marisa winked.

"If I want to be nagged at, I'll find Shikieiki," Reimu stated, referring to the Yama that judged dead spirits from Gensokyou, whether they should go to Hell, Heaven, the Netherworld, or get reincarnated.

"Go to hell then!" Marisa teased.

"But I bet if you meet her, she'll have much, much more to say about you, like book stealing," Reimu replied, grinning.

"For the gazillionth time, I don't steal! I borrow things! I'll return them after I die!"

"And your house is much, much more a mess than my shrine. Isn't it supposed to be a shop?"

"They're not mess, they're artifacts, ze!"

Reimu laughed. Oddly enough, Marisa joined her, making Reimu look at her quizzically.

"Never mind, ze, glad to see you back in high spirits."

They chatted again, idly letting time pass. The weather turned cooler. Not having anything to do and soothed by the cool wind, the two snoozed into a carefree nap.

Marisa was awakened by the sound of pattering footsteps. "Reimu?"

"Nothing, just thirsty," the shrine maiden replied. "I'm going to brew some tea."

"Is it night already?" Marisa asked. "Let me guess, twilight?"

"I don't think so, it doesn't feel that long."

Marisa sat up and opened her bag. Then she took out a stopwatch. "Eh? It's only 3 o'clock!"

"Maybe the watch's broken?"

"Yeah, maybe," Marisa shrugged. "Hey, when will tea be served?"

"Patience will you? I'm just at the start of boiling water!" Reimu answered hotly. Although, her stance seemed like she was really feeling cold, the way she put both of her arms around her body.

A sudden spark ignited in Marisa's mind. "Ah! Want to see a trick to boil water instantly?"

"A spell," Reimu guessed shrewdly with a bored expression.

"Exactly!" Marisa continued excitedly, not bothered by Reimu's indifference. "Give me that kettle!"

Before Reimu could even answer, Marisa had already entered the kitchen and taken the kettle with her outside. The shrine maiden sighed. She hoped that no problem would come out of this. She walked out of the shrine, only to have her eyes widening as Marisa threw the kettle into the air, and with lightning-fast reflexes, aiming at the kettle from below with her mini-Hakkero (mini magic reactor).

"MASTER SPARK!"

Reimu's jaws fell agape. Marisa just blew a huge blast of magical power that was usually meant for pwning youkai. One hit from a blast like that could kill a hundred fairies. To put it simply, Marisa's way of instant water boiling was like saying that a Scud missile, when aimed at a bucket of water, will make the water boil instantly.

"Ow ow ow!" Marisa covered her head in pain as sprinkles of boiling water rained on her.

Clang.

And a smoking kettle fell right on Reimu's head, "Ouch!" and onto her shoulder, "Ow!" and on her foot. "Yikes! Hot!"

The cooking appliance was no longer recognizable. It looked like a plastic cookware that had been in the fire for ten seconds.

"MARISA! Are you trying to kill me or what? And that kettle cost five thousand yen!"

Marisa only laughed guiltily. She guessed that the last one was actually the thing that made Reimu angry the most. "Sorry, but I tested that technique many times already. 4 out of 5 attempts succeeded."

"Why would you do that if it's just 4 out of 5 chance of success?" Reimu retorted, shaking a fist.

"Seriously, there's no way that kettle was 5000 yen if it broke after that gentle blast."

"Err…" Marisa caught Reimu there, but Reimu continued angrily, "There's no freaking way that that was gentle!"

"Aw, it's just a cheap kettle! Patchy and Alice are much nicer than you, I have no problem taking, err, I mean, borrowing books from them. They don't make this much of a fuss, well, relatively speaking."

"No, they'll just shoot it out," Reimu replied.

"Which I usually win!" Marisa added playfully.

"Not against me!" Reimu drew out her gohei, a rod with many paper seals attached to it with streamers.

"Ah, it's already quite a long time, ze?" Marisa replied, sounding even more playful. "Since we exchanged blows and blasts." She extended her hand, and her flying broom zoomed right into her grasp. Her other hand was gripping the Hakkero.

"Bring it on," Reimu gave a determined smile. Even the surrounding seemed like celebrating the epic battle. The cold wind was howling like mad, bringing dead leaves with it. The sky was a murky grey, enveloped by clouds in its entirety.

"Well, the loser will have to prepare dinner and wash the dishes!"

"And you'll have to pay for the kettle! At double price!"

"There's no way that kettle cost 5000 yen!"

"Talk is useless. Let's fight this out."

"And the loser will have to sweep the lawn! My lawn!"

"No, mine!"

BOOM.

A flash of lightning followed by a thunderous boom. Then it rained. No, it never rained, but it poured. Both declared a draw, and quickly sprinted for cover under the shade of the shrine.

* * *

_Sorry guys, no Marisa versus Reimu fight, i.e. for now. Don't blame me, it's the incident's fault! Now that's that. What surprises await?_

_Funny how of all characters, it's the main characters that got the least things to do._

_Teaser: Next chapter? I wonder whatever happened to lil Cirno?_


	10. Complete Disappearance

_Here comes!_

* * *

**Chapter 10: Complete Disappearance**

_[Start of Background Music: Great Fairy Wars ~ Fairy Wars]_

"I'm not a watermelon!"

Cirno woke up from a dream of drooling rabid… um, rabbits wanting to eat her alive. She was beyond glad to find that it was all but a dream. Yesterday's experience was more than enough for her.

She was now in the house of the three mischievous fairies, on Star Sapphire's bed. Luna and Sunny were sleeping in their beds while Star was sleeping by the table.

It turned out that after their epic battle, Reisen wanted to bring them to Eientei, to Eirin, but she bumped into Eirin and Tewi on the way. Eirin, who was surprised to see Reisen in Sakuya's maid dress (Sakuya lent her a spare), brought all four of the unconscious fairies to the mansion.

The four, upon resuming consciousness, were scared out of their wits to see Eirin sitting on a chair at the opposite side of the room. "Well, turned out that your icy friend here was quite strong, just her blood was enough for me to get enough materials for what I needed," was her words. The fairies didn't understand, but Eirin then explained that she wanted to create a substance to cool the air whenever summer got too hot. She even treated their wounds, although later demanding payment. Seeing that they didn't have money, Eirin settled for another half-pint of Cirno's blood. Anemic and woozy, they carried her home, desperate to get away from the mansion and the scary lady. But Eirin never told them that she did cut away a portion of Cirno's freezing livers while they were unconscious. _It'll grow back, the pharmacist thought to herself._

Cirno felt an itch on her abdomen. She tried to scratch, but found thick bandage covering it, which to her, was really a bother, but the other three fairies had insisted that she would not take it off until a week later.

However, her fairy instinct was nudging against her conscience. There was something that made her feel more alert than always. She looked out the window, and her entire being screamed with joy.

"It's snowing!" she shrieked with joy. "Guys, wake up! Snow! It's snowing! Right in the middle of summer! Snow! Snow! Snooowww! Sunny! Star! Luna!"

The commotion woke the whole house. The three fairies' summer house was actually the inside of a huge tree at the border of Gensokyou. It looked like a perfectly normal tree on the outside, while inside, was actually a very homely living space with fairy-sized furniture and appliances.

"What?" "Snow?" "Is this a dream?" Star, Sunny and Luna asked in consecutive order as they peeked out of the window.

"How is this possible?" Luna asked, her eyes widening. She had some bandages wrapped around her head.

"Did we sleep from summer all the way to winter?" Sunny added into the list of questions. Bandages were wound around her neck.

"No wonder it feels so cold!" Star exclaimed with an excited smile. A plaster was on her cheek.

They quickly got dressed in winter apparel.

After that, they went out and had a snow fight. It was actually still two or three hours before dawn, but Sunny, having the ability to refract light, gathered the light from the crescent moon and stars to make the area in front of their house lit as if by a spotlight.

It was really weird for Gensokyou to have thick snow in summer. Even the trees seemed unprepared for it, with their still green leaves covered with snow. Frozen flowers were everywhere.

"I wonder what happened to the animals," Star mumbled to herself as she scrutinized a frozen butterfly. Thwack! "Ow!" A hard snowball hit her head.

"Gotcha!" Cirno cheered, laughing. Star laughed with her, but responded with a full force throw right at Cirno's face.

"Hey!"

"That's not a snowball, Cirno, that's an ice ball!" Luna reprimanded.

"I only returned what she threw at me, plus freebies!" Star explained with a cheeky smile. She had covered Cirno's ice ball with some more snow, and launched the retaliation full-faced.

"My nose!" Cirno groaned in pain.

"Serves you right!" Sunny exclaimed. "Now, let's rain her with 'danmaku!'"

And Cirno was beaten mercilessly with an endless torrent of snowballs firing at a rate of four snowballs per second.

"Hey, ow! Guys, this is unfair!" Cirno pleaded, but then she mustered her powers as an ice fairy, and sent a hail of ice shards flying at her attackers.

"She's mad! Run!" Sunny yelled.

"Ha! That's what you get for challenging me!" but then she swooned and fell face down.

"Cirno!" Sunny went to the spread-eagled figure.

"Uh, I don't feel so good," Cirno moaned.

"Oh yeah, she just got her blood taken," Star reminded. "You better rest inside, Cirno. I'll make some warm porridge."

"Yay!" the other two fairies cheered. Star just chuckled.

Over their meal, which they couldn't decide whether it was a very early breakfast or a very late supper, they discussed wild theories and guesses as for why it was snowing in the middle of a very hot summer.

"It has never been like this before!" Sunny asserted. "That one time, it was a very very long winter, but even that didn't happen overnight!"

"It must be some incident started by some youkai somewhere," Luna deduced. "It was just too uncanny for summer to turn into winter overnight."

"Maybe we slept all the way from summer to winter?" Star suggested.

"No way!" Sunny retorted. "Even I can't sleep that much!"

"Hibernation?" Luna asked.

"But yeah, I guess you're right, because all the bugs and trees were frozen before having a chance to sleep properly. It must be a very sudden winter," Star added.

"I told you I didn't oversleep!" Sunny repeated.

"So it can only be another incident," Luna concluded.

"I wonder who's responsible this time. Probably some very scary youkai?" Sunny pondered.

"Maybe an ice fairy?" Cirno drowsily suggested.

"Aren't you the strongest ice fairy around?" Star asked her.

"Oh, I forgot," Cirno mumbled over her bowl of porridge.

"Oh yeah, the Hakurei shrine maiden! She must know!" Sunny exclaimed with a snap of her finger.

"Yeah!" her two companions agreed.

"Then let's go and see what's she up to!" Sunny exclaimed. "Uh, Cirno, are you waiting for the porridge to get cold?"

"Of course not! If I want, I can make it cold myself," she boasted, touching her bowl with one finger. "See?" The porridge had frozen.

"Okay, so please make sure you finish it!" Star told her with a cheerful smile.

"Wait, I can't eat it like this!" Cirno panicked.

"Well, it's just like ice cream," Sunny teased.

Cirno held up the bowl and turned it upside down. "See?" The frozen porridge didn't even fall, but got stuck to the bowl.

And Star had to give her a second helping.

After a few moments, the fairies started to get prepared for their trip outside. "Cirno!" Star told her, "We're going outside, to the Hakurei Shrine. You're not very well, so we'll be leaving you at home, okay?"

At those words, Cirno got up and put her hands on her hip. "Of course I'll be going with you!"

"Uh, aren't you not feeling very well?"

"I'm an ice fairy! A little cold outside will only make me stronger."

An hour later, they arrived at the shrine. It was still dark, and the shrine was unlit, so they assumed Reimu to be still asleep.

"Hey, I got a good idea!" Cirno said all of a sudden. The other three fairies noticed the change in her spirits as they walked outside. While at first, she was mostly silent and had her head bowed, within moments of being in the winter surrounding, she was back to being old Cirno. Loud, energetic and hyper.

The other three fairies smiled when she explained what she was going to do.

"Perfect Freeze!" Cirno activated her freezing ability, sealing the doors of the shrine with ice. The other three laughed while watching her. They were, after all, fairies. And fairies equal mischief.

"Can't wait to see how she's going to get ou-" said Sunny, but she didn't have to wait, because before her sentence was finished,

"Hakurei Amulet!"

Boom.

The door blew open. The three fairies disappeared, leaving a frightened Cirno. "W-w-w-wa-wait for me!"

"So it's you?" Reimu roared.

"H-hi!" Cirno greeted nervously.

"Fantasy Orb!"

Mega boom.

* * *

_I'll stop right here. Lol, look at the time already. Haha._

_ Teaser: Was the culprit Eientei, or Scarlet Devil Mansion?_


	11. Summer Disappearance Suspects

_Just a note here, according to the lunar calendar, today is... MY BIRTHDAY! Woot! Happy birthday to me! Too bad no one really knows my lunar birthdate... *shikushikushiku (sobbing)_

_Continued!_

* * *

** Chapter 11: Summer Disappearance Suspects**

A bedridden Reisen shifted uneasily under her futon blanket. Her upset stomach was giving her nightmares. Her brows sweaty, she shivered, feeling cold all over.

A tap on her shoulder.

"Uwaaaaa!" Reisen screamed. "Eirin, don't eat me!"

It took her a few seconds to realize that it was Tewi, and that she was dreaming. What was unusual was that Tewi had a concerned look over her face.

"Yes?" Reisen asked with hostility, but her voice sounded weak.

"Here, your medicine," the earth rabbit offered a sachet of pills and a glass of water.

"Finally…" Reisen managed a weak sigh of relief.

"You need to take one every 3 hours, and you'll be back in shape in 3 days."

"I'm feeling cold all over. Too cold," Reisen mumbled weakly. "I don't think I'll be back in shape in just 3 days."

"Of course it's cold! It's snowing!" Tewi declared cheerfully, spreading her arms.

"Snowing?" Reisen's ears pricked up. Only then she noticed that Tewi was wearing winter apparel. After piecing her thoughts together, she sighed. "Typical Eirin, to make that cooling agent insanely powerful. No wonder I keep sneezing again and again- atchoo!" she sneezed. "Ugh… this is messy." She blew her nose on a tissue paper. "I wonder if anyone will kill us for making it snow in summer? Ah, snow, no wonder my ears feel weird."

"Well, just a moment!" Tewi left the room. Reisen sunk back into the depths of her futon and closed her eyes, as dancing patterns played against her eyelids.

"I'm back!" a sliding sound of the door being opened, and the cheerful rabbit's voice declared her return. Reisen felt something being put on her ears. "Earmuffs! Just what every rabbit needs in winter!"

"Winter? I wonder, is it already time to call it winter? Isn't it technically still sum-, WAAAH!" Reisen screamed. "Take it off! Take it off!" and she threw the earmuffs away.

"You don't like music?" Tewi asked with a blank expression.

"Are you trying to kill me? It's too loud! My ears will explode and fall off!"

"Sorry," Tewi apologized, without even a sign of feeling guilty. Reisen guessed that it might even be intentional. "It's one of those things that Kaguya-sama brought from the Moon…"

"Then don't turn it on full volume!"

"Inaba!" Kaguya entered the room. "Oh, were you listening to music? Here, some warm cocktail to make you feel better!"

"Did Eirin make it?" Reisen asked.

"No, Eirin's away right now. I thought I'll just be helpful."

"Just drink it. Don't upset the Princess," Tewi whispered in Reisen's ears.

"What's in it?"

"A little of this, a little of that."

"Uh, huh, sounds fishy," Reisen pointed out with a frown.

"Maybe it is fishy. As in, fish!" Kaguya made a lame joke. "Actually I forgot what I mixed in," Kaguya explained with simple honesty.

"That's even waaay fishier!" Reisen protested. "Oh well, while it's still hot…" She finished it all in one gulp. "Gu! Waah!" Instant knock out.

"I think you just poisoned her," Tewi commented.

"Silly, of course not!" Kaguya denied, not the least insulted. Then her sight fell on the earphones lying on the floor. "I wonder what Reisen was hearing." And she put it on.

"She said it's too loud," Tewi pointed out.

"No it's not," Kaguya replied with a carefree smile, her hands holding both sides of the earphone while her head nodded in rhythm with the beat of the music.

* * *

Flandre Scarlet pushed the metal door carefully. It was not often that she could escape the cellar where she was locked for the last five centuries.

The little vampire was Remilia's younger sister, the Scarlet Devil Mansion's little secret. Looking like a very young child, she had red eyes and short blonde hair. Her skirt and vest were red, with a pink shirt underneath. Like her sister, she wore a mob cap with a red ribbon attached. Her most striking feature was her wings, which seemed to be made of iron and prism shards, consisting of a stem and colorful crystals hanging from it.

She closed the door silently and locked it with a key, humming to herself, smiling. At least they'll find the trapped and frightened maid soon, so no harm done. Flandre wondered if what the maid said to her companion was true, that it really snowed tonight, right in the middle of a very hot summer. In the cellar it was always cool, even in the summer. But then, she noticed that right now was much colder than usual.

"Whoa, it's really snowing!" she exclaimed, the wonder apparent in her voice as she took a peek at one of the few windows in the mansion. In fact, along the corridor she's in, that was the only window there. Outside, it was like the middle of December. Snow was falling heavily, accompanied by strong wind, covering the entire landscape. Near the horizon, she can see a frozen Misty Lake.

But then, she heard banging on the door.

"The maids must have noticed that their key was missing," Flandre mumbled to herself.

_"Two Little maids to the cellar went down;_

_Two got locked by Flandre and then there were none._

_Two little maids left all alone;_

_They went and hanged themselves and then there were none,"_ she chanted, giggling to herself.

On the other side, the two maids continued to bang on the door. "Sakuya! Help!" the muffled voices shout.

"Ah, it's the middle of the night. Will anyone notice them before the morning?" Flandre spoke her thoughts aloud. Then she snickered, and turned into her bat form. She was now a little bat, able to flit unnoticed across the mansion, at least, until someone found out that she escaped the cellar.

Flying from corridor to corridor, she tried to measure the mansion end to end, wondering whether the mansion above ground was bigger than its subterranean section. But then, she couldn't count steps while she was in bat form, so she'll just have to do some guesswork, counting the time taken to move from corridor to corridor. But at 889, she lost count. _Did I just count 899? Ah! I'm confused!_

The sound of a muffled conversation caught her attention. _Ah, it's o-nee-sama! _Feeling excited, she flew in the voices' directions. _And purple Patchy!_

The pair was having an animated discussion. (Yes, animated. They were animated characters. Pardon the pun.)

Remilia Scarlet, owner of the mansion was walking with her arms behind her head. "Patchy, how's the mist project going? Sakuya said the spot in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost was secure enough, and others will suspect Eientei, but I'm still not sure about that. Busybodies may come knocking at any time."

Patchouli was in her usual nightgown. She yawned a bit, but quickly resumed maintaining a sharp expression. "Well, it had been hard work, and I'm lacking sleep, but it turns out that bleaching the reagents was easier than expected. I was just about to start making the bleach when I remembered that we could just buy bleach from the outside world. Well, Sakuya won't allow me to use the bleach the maids are using for laundry, so I asked her to go and get some more at Kourindou. And she returned with them, and some manga. Apparently there was a manga titled 'Bleach' too."

"That Sakuya! She never told me," Remilia complained. "I'll make sure she'll get what's coming to her if China gets to read it before me." Then realizing that she was deviating from the subject, she cleared her throat, and continued. "Ahehehem. Looks like Operation Reprise of the Scarlet Devil is not as much a hassle as we thought. Although, the sudden change in temperature is really bothering. It's really weird. I wonder why it suddenly became winter. There must be some other culprit."

"Well, I was too preoccupied with the mist business to start researching on the sudden weather change," Patchouli replied. "And all of the sudden, Sakuya woke me up after midnight and told me that it's snowing and that you wanted a chat."

"Anyways, the results were still the same, the sun is blocked, so I think I can have fun twenty-four hours outside," Remilia dismissed with a shrug.

At these words, Flandre's heart leapt with joy. _So that means it's the most perfect time to escape! There's no sun, and I can enjoy myself playing snow and making headless snowmen!_

"But as I said, Patchy, there must be a culprit," Remilia repeated insistently. "Like every detective novel, by investigating how they did it, you can find out who they are! I don't want my mischief to be overshadowed by some other youkai!" Remilia explained energetically. "Let my incident be of wide renown!"

"I'll do my best for that," but suddenly, the two froze. "Did you hear something?" Patchouli asked, turning her head around.

"Of course I heard, I'm a vampire! It sounded like small wings flapping!" Remilia answered, her eyes widening, keeping herself alert. "There!" she pointed at the sole window in the corridor.

The window was covered by dark curtains. And from the top of the curtain, a large headless moth, dusty brown in color, fell lightly, twitching.

"It's just a moth?" Patchouli asked.

"No, the moth's headless," Remilia noted. "Something must have taken its head off. I know that what I heard was something bigger. A sparrow maybe? Ah well, leave that to the maids. And tell Sakuya to scold them for letting a sparrow in."

Over their heads, bat-Flandre spitted out the moth's head. _Eww! Nasty!_ She spluttered in bat language, spitting out moth dust.

"But Patchy, can you fetch Sakuya? I need to have a talk with her. I'll wait right here."

Flandre stayed motionless. _What are you staying here for, o-nee-sama? Go away! Go away! _But Remilia was not moving. She only stood, her eyes scanning the room, humming absent-mindedly.

Sakuya arrived, looking sharp and ready for a command. "Yes, Ojou-sama?"

"There!" to Flandre's surprise, Remilia pointed at the curtain.

Time stopped. Sakuya leapt to the curtain, grabbed it and pulled it aside, revealing a small frightened bat, and caught it by the ear.

As time resumed its flow, the bat let out a squeak, and exploded in a puff of smoke, morphing into Remilia's little sister. She was having her hands over her right ear. "Ow! That hurts! You got big fingers!"

"You got small ears," Remilia replied with a scowl. "Flandre, please return to the cellar," it was more of a command then a request.

"Can't I just have some fun outside? It's snowing! You said there'll be no sun for twenty-four hours! I already missed all the fun when you made the red mist last time!" Flandre begged, her eyes sparkling.

"You know, outside, it may rain hard anytime, and you know that we shouldn't try braving running water. Can you please return to the cellar?"

"Please?" Flandre begged, giving a pleading look.

"Don't try to charm me, don't even try," Remilia continued, sounding annoyed. "Can you please return to the cellar, Flandre?"

"That doesn't work?" Flandre asked.

"No. Pleading doesn't work," Remilia asserted. "Or puppy eyes. Can you please return to the cellar, Flandre?"

Flandre gave a wide grin, showing a pair of fangs. "No."

* * *

_So is it going to be a sister x sister battle? Miss Psycho versus Miss Charisma? Okay, so who's making all the weather change here? Eirin or Patchy? Kaguya or Remi? Both? Or neither? Some U. N. Owen? (don't mention Mc Donald's, please)._

_ Some people might notice me using "Waa…h" or "Uwaa…h" or "Kyaa…a" for screams as compared to the more usual English onomatopoeias. Well, I chose those for their anime and manga origins. Besides, they sound more moe. x3_

_ Teaser: Next chapter? Start of investigation! Whodunit?_


	12. Oriental Sacred Place

_Now back to our two heroines… Don't you two have anything better to do?_

* * *

**Chapter 12: Oriental Sacred Place's Door**

Reimu's spell card was a hat trick plus one. Cirno and the three fairies turning invisible stood no chance against Fantasy Orb.

A blinding flash of light and a thunderous boom echoed, breaking the silence of the unholy hours before dawn. Instant pwn.

Reimu, stretching with a yawn and a satisfied expression, sat on the verandah. "So it's snowing," she stated with a puzzled expression. Then the cold got into her. "Wah! It's cold!" she rushed inside and searched for extra clothes.

Inside, a hatless Marisa was rubbing her eyes, her golden hair slightly ruffled from sleep, having risen from her blanket. "What is it, Reimu? Some stray tanuki? Or night youkai? Why is it so cold right - is that, SNOW?" her eyes widened as she saw the scene outside.

"Yeah, the weather must have gone crazy," Reimu replied. "And I exterminated some nuisance. Although… my door will need a lot for repairs," she said, sounding really annoyed.

"Well, there's no better way to start a day than some good ol' youkai exterminating. What was it? Was it Letty Whiterock?" asked Marisa, referring to a yuki-onna, a winter spirit that had the power of freezing at her command.

"No, just some annoying fairies. The same bunch that took a liking to you," Reimu replied, heading to the kitchen to brew some tea.

"It's them?" shocked, Marisa headed outside to survey the damage. "Wow, Reimu's being extra mean. Maybe she is the cranky type when someone interrupts her sleep."

"I heard that, Marisa!" a voice in the kitchen protested. Marisa stuck her tongue out cheekily.

"What? What did I say?" Marisa played dumb. She sat there, on the verandah, by the unconscious fairies, surveying the alien landscape. Everything was very different covered in snow. Just yesterday it was the perfect opposite. It felt too strange to have the weather change in such a short time. It just felt wrong. It was just not right. Something must've been the cause. But when the wind blew against her, she cursed silently at the fact that she was not bringing her winter clothes with her when coming to the shrine. "Hey, Reimu! What took you so long? You growing tea or what?"

"Says the one who blew my kettle," came the snappy reply.

"Ouch," Marisa cheekily pretended to bite her tongue. "So you're boiling water in a cup?" No answer. The cold starting to get into her, she hurried inside and took the blanket, wrapping it around her like an oversized kimono while sitting outside, enjoying the wind messing around with her hair. "Hey, Reimu, you fell asleep or what?" she called out into the kitchen.

"Can't you just be patient and wait a little longer?" Reimu's annoyed voice snapped back.

"Oh, sorry, just making sure, ze," Marisa chuckled. Then her thoughts floated into things distant and past.

The lantern light from inside the shrine cast long shadows from the open door. The night was lit by a crescent moon and some stars, but most of it was covered by clouds. The feeble light was enough, however, for Marisa to see the pure white landscape, which was a dark gray in the night. Except for the occasional howl of the wind, no sound was heard. Even the usual cicada cry was gone, probably because said insects were frozen by the sudden winter.

"Marisa," Reimu appeared a few moments later, bringing a tea set on a tray. "What do you think?"

"About what?" Marisa asked, being brought back to earth from her musings.

"About this sudden winter. Isn't it something like our jobs to find out and settle the incident at its roots?"

"Yeah, um, the last time we have an incident like this would be when the ghosts stole the essence of spring from Gensokyou to make their giant tree blossom," Marisa recounted the incident happening some time before, when winter didn't end even long after the usual start of spring. Yuyuko Saigyouji was the culprit behind the mischief.

"But that was spring," Reimu dismissed with a sigh. "They wanted the essence of spring to make Saigyou Ayakashi bloom. Why would anyone want to steal summer, though, especially when it's as hot as this? I wonder if that's even possible. If it was, Meikai will probably be a pressure cooker. Besides, I don't think anyone can steal that much overnight as to make it snow immediately."

"My, my, you really put a lot of thought in there, don't you, Reimu?"

"It's my job to find if anything's wrong with Gensokyou," she asserted.

"Well, it's not my job, but I'm sure I'll get some fun from trying to find out. Or maybe, some interesting treasure!" Marisa exclaimed.

Reimu yawned. "Ah, so sleepy. Those fairies really know how to ruin my sleep. Now that it's too cold as this, with my mind all set on thinking about the incident, I don't think I can go back to bed." She took a sip from her cup of tea, which was still smoking.

"Hey, look at the bright side, you'll probably get something interesting to do! Tell me, what do you usually do if there's nothing happening?"

"Err… exterminate youkai?"

"Not what you sometimes do! What you do most of the time!"

"Err… Sweeping, having tea on the veran-, hey, what are you asking me that for! How about you yourself?" Reimu returned the pointed question.

"See?" Marisa pointed out with a wide grin.

"Well, says the one who spends most of her time bothering people."

"I'm just being helpful. What would you do without me?"

"Live peacefully?"

"Yeah, sweeping, having tea on the verandah, lazing about, sweeping, having tea on the verandah, lazing abo-," Marisa continued, but Reimu put her hands over her ears.

A moan made the two turn their heads. "My heaaad…" Cirno started to move. "Ah! It's the witch that lost to me last time!"

"Ya really don't know what's the appropriate thing to say at the appropriate time, do ya?" Marisa replied with a smile and a frown. "I told you last time, I was going super easy on you! You're just a wee tad bit strong for a fairy, which made me miscalculate."

"You lost to Cirno?" Reimu asked with a squint.

"Aw, come on! I only used lasers that will not kill her, to be fair!" Marisa chuckled in a dismissive way.

"That's pretty soft of you," Reimu shrugged.

"The fairies did say that you're mean…" Marisa criticized, just as Cirno tried to sneak away but Reimu caught her foot, sending the fairy falling face down.

"Ow! No fair! I don't feel so good right now!" came the muffled voice.

"She has plasters on her head," Marisa commented. "I wonder who put them on."

Reimu walked towards the three other fairies. "How long are you all going to pretend to be asleep!" she said, but not before putting on her geta (wooden sandal) and giving a sizeable kick.

"Ow!" the three voices cried out. "We didn't do anything!"

"Repair this!" Reimu pointed at the ruined door.

"It's not our fault!" Luna protested. The three then pointed at Cirno.

"What if it is?" Cirno asked with a defiant ring to her voice. "Ow!" she got a bump on the head as reward.

"But she didn't break the door!" Star protested.

"Well, you all better do as the scary shrine maiden says, because, she can get pretty mean, you know," Marisa said with a carefree smile.

"Repair this!"

"Why do we have to?" Sunny cried out.

"Or I'll blow your house."

"Kyaaaah! She knows our house!"

"Yeah, blow their house!" Cirno encouraged. Reimu gave her a cold stare. And a smoking bump appeared on Cirno's head.

_To even make fairies do the repairs, Reimu, you are really cheap… _Marisa thought privately with a snigger.

"What's with that look?" Reimu asked with a frown.

"Nothing, just enjoying the sight of how well you get along."

"I'm a youkai exterminator. My job covers fairy infestations."

"Eeeeek!" Luna, Sunny and Star shrieked in fear.

"Well, Reimu, I think I'm going to be investigating this incident, if it was any incident to begin with. The early bird gets the worm!" Marisa stretched. Then she held out her hand, and her broom came flying into her outstretched palm. Throwing aside the blanket wrapping herself, she exclaimed, "Thanks for the tea!"

"You're going already?"

"Yeah," said Marisa, sitting onto her broom. "You go on with the door repairs. I'm repairing summer."

With those cheeky words, Marisa rose to the air and flew away. She had no idea how much her words annoyed Reimu.

* * *

_Those fairies… sigh. They're really quite a handful. Don't they have anything better to do than distracting the heroines? Well, somehow I made Marisa's personality to really show in this chapter._

_Teaser: Malice._


	13. A Malice Confrontation

_Yay! 13th! My favorite number! And so far, I'm liking this chapter a lot. _

_I really encourage you all dear readers, to look for the background music and listen to it while reading the related parts. Believe me, it gives an epic feeling (given your internet is fast enough). You can even reread chapters you've read before that involved background music while listening to the BGMs. Trust me, it usually makes a difference._

* * *

**Chapter 13: A Malice Confrontation**

Marisa sneezed. It was too cold for flying on a broom. But then that was because she was not in her winter clothing. Her winter clothing may not appear different from her summer apparel, but the fabric was many times thicker.

First, it was snowing. Second, it was windy. Third, the winter was too sudden for her body to prepare itself for. Fourth, she was flying against the wind. Fifth, her speed made the wind blow faster against her. Sixth, in high altitudes, of course the temperature will be lower. Seventh, her stomach was empty. Tons of reasons for her to be defeated by the cold.

Looked like her attempt at trying to act cool cost her near hypothermia. After Hakurei shrine was out of sight, she decided to lower her flying altitude. _I'm cold right now because I tried to act cool? That doesn't sound right._ Then she slowed down, shivering. "Aw, curse it! I left my bag at the shrine!" she moaned, realizing the cause why she felt so light flying. "Ah… Reimu will only laugh if I return right now… guess I'll take my bag after whatever-this-incident-is is solved… At least I have my Hakkero… I hope that's all I'm going to need for now," she mumbled to herself, her voice drowned by the wind, only reaching her ears. "Aaah… it's so cold," she whimpered, hugging her broomstick. "I need to stop somewhere… Maybe at Alice's? I hope she will lend me some warm winter clothing!"

And with that, she started to descend, flying lower and lower until the familiar house in the middle of the Forest of Magic was visible. It was still dark. The black clouds were still overhead, and the slight gap between the clouds showed that it was still at least an hour before dawn.

The house's windows were lit. _She's awake? Good!_

Eager to get out of the snow, she knocked on Alice's door. "Alice! Alice! It's me, your beloved friend Marisa!"

And Marisa was surrounded by moving dolls that float dreamily in the air. They all have blonde hair topped with a ribbon, blank expressions and a blue dress. Each of the dolls was armed with sharp iron spikes. "Wait, what's this all about? Alice? It's me!"

And an annoyed Alice came out of the door. She had blonde hair and a blue dress with white frills like her dolls, but her hair was short, and her expression was one of cold annoyance. "It's the middle of the night. Are you 'borrowing' something again, Marisa?" she asked pointedly.

"Yeah!" Marisa answered, oblivious to the reproach.

"Bad answer," Alice crossed her arms. "I wanted you to return the books that you 'borrowed' last time without even asking me."

"Um, y-y-yeah!" Marisa tried to save herself. "Those-those books… I forgot. And of course I don't finish reading them yet!"

Alice's eyes glinted. "And you're here to borrow more?"

"Never mind all that. I want to know if you know anything, anything about this sudden winter."

"Okay, but you're not borrowing any books this time, got it?"

"Aw, okay, maybe next time," Marisa shrugged.

Alice sighed. "Come in."

"Thanks! I'm f-freezing here! Can I borrow a blanket for a while?"

Alice seems to consider for a few moments, her cheeks blushing in the cold, but then she said, "Sorry, no borrowing for you. My dolls will make sure of that. Just sit in front of the fireplace and tend the fire. I'll see if I can find anything on sudden winters."

"Uh, won't some tea will be nice?"

Alice appears to ignore her, leaving the living room to search for materials that she mentioned. But a few dolls entered the room carrying a tea set and a plate of biscuits before retreating back into the hallway. Marisa sat in front of the fire, warming her hands. Then she took some of the biscuits and drank some of the tea, sighing contently.

_Oh, wait! I didn't come here for nothing! _Soundlessly, Marisa sneaked into the hallway. Peeking through the half-open door, Alice seemed to be engrossed with something. Knowing that her chance won't be long, she swiftly sneaked past the door, looking for any books or grimoire that may help her.

Sneakily rummaging through books on the shelves, she was glad that Alice knew how to keep her house in order, making finding books a less tiring work. Then with a stack of books in her hands, she hurriedly made her way back into the living room, but her foot brushed against something. Having her hands full, she did not bother to look down.

It was one of Alice's dolls. Alice, feeling one of her dolls hit something, knew that something was off. Dropping the doll she was scrutinizing, which was of a witch in black with a white apron, she hurried to the living room to see Marisa with a stack of books by her side.

"I said, no borrowing," Alice told her with a frown, her arms crossed.

"I'm not borrowing ze! I'm reading them here," Marisa replied with a cheerful wink. Then she stuffed a biscuit into her mouth and continued reading.

Alice threw her a suspicious glare.

"So, did you find anything?" Marisa inquired.

"Err… no," Alice was a little bit taken off guard by the question. She was fooling around fixing a doll of Marisa just now, trying to make it look more like the real one while she was around. _It was just for a minute,_ she thought. "I mean, at least I found out that the sudden winter was caused by sudden loss of warmth. I heard that, when cooling without using magic, one will need something to absorb the heat away, like how people in the outside world create fridges."

"Fridges? I've seen one of those in the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Marisa noted.

"And its side feels warm, right? That's because it absorbed heat from things inside it, by the use of cooling agents."

"I see."

"As for me, I think you can easily find the culprit by using magic to detect the direction the unnatural flow of heat is moving. However, that too won't work, because somehow, the heat flow had stopped."

"It stopped?" Marisa asked.

"Yes, it has stopped," Alice insisted. She was glad that she took the initiative to research the sudden cold herself before Marisa came.

"So it won't get any colder?" Marisa inquired.

"But if there's a culprit, the culprit may restart or repeat the process again and again," Alice pointed out. "So the culprit needs to be stopped or an Ice Age may start in Gensokyou."

"Ah, I knew you're not telling me all that just for the sake of telling," Marisa grinned. "You wanted me to stop whoever is causing the incident, right? So are you coming with me?"

"No."

"What? That's not fair, ze!"

"So, what did you find from reading my books?"

"Ahahaha, I've just started," Marisa laughed in a dismissive way.

"I see," Alice gave a frown.

"Well, if what you said is right, are you saying that the heat was being pulled away in one direction?"

"Yes. Unfortunately I was not up early enough before the heat flow stopped. Oh, and I have one bit of information that you may find interesting," Alice let out a smile.

"What is it?"

"Promise me you'll return my books as soon as possible," Alice said, still wearing her smile. "And when I say as soon as possible, today."

"But I haven't finished them yet!"

Alice gave a that's-not-my-problem stare. Marisa sighed. "Yeah, I'm returning your books."

Alice gave a satisfied smile and poured a cup of tea. Taking a sip, she told Marisa, "I've seen Sakuya in the forest. She was bringing with her reagents that, when brought together, should be able to create a mist. And mist cools. You see the relationship here?"

"Ah, I see, that was definitely very useful! That Patchy better has a good explanation for this, or I'll look forward to Master Spark her in the face!" she added excitedly. "But you're not coming?"

"No. I'll be waiting for you to return the books then," Alice said with a shrug.

"No, you don't have to. Here, your books!" Marisa handed the books she had stacked at her side.

"I didn't mean _these _books, I mean the ones you borrowed, I mean, _took _last time, without my permission!" Alice retorted, her voice rising slightly.

"Ahahaha, nope, you never said that when you made your deal ze," Marisa pointed out with a chuckle. "You only said to return your books, you never said 'all', or which."

"Why you-," Alice said, her fingers curling into a fist in annoyance.

"Well, next time try to pull a better deal, or you'll have to wait for me to die," Marisa taunted cheekily.

Alice let out a sigh.

"Well, time for me to go ze! Your bit of information really helps!" Marisa exclaimed, getting on her feet. "Can I borrow a winter cloak?" she held out a hand.

"No. I said no borrowing."

"Geez, you're mean," Marisa scoffed, putting her hand over her mouth. "I'm on the way for something big, and you won't even help with something small. I left my winter clothing at home, you know."

"It's not like your house is that far away! We're neighbors!"

_[Start of Background Music: Doll Judgement ~ The Girl Who Played With People's Shapes]_

"Yeah, yeah," Marisa dismissed with a wave. "Well, I'm leaving." Alice continued to stare at her without blinking. "What?" Marisa asked, but Alice still didn't answer. Instead, the girl just stared at her silently with her deep emerald eyes. "Uh, fine. I guess I'm going right now," Marisa said hurriedly, feeling uneasy. "Ow!" she cried just as she turned, feeling a stinging pain on her back, like a jab with a needle. Shanghai, Alice's doll had just poked at her with a knife. "Careful with tha-,"

Thud. Marisa winced with pain, her eyes teary.

No, it was not Shanghai stabbing her, (that would be murder), but a huge volume just slipped out from underneath Marisa's apron and fell on its hard corner right on her foot.

"Did I say no borrowing?" Alice gave out a creepy smile, the kind Eirin gave before punishing Reisen.

"Wah!" Marisa hurried to the door, but it was locked. Knife-wielding dolls went after her, like some horror movie.

"How childish. I already guessed you were hiding something under your-,"

"MASTER SPARK!" Boom. Alice's door were blown from its hinges, and Marisa quickly grabbed her broom and launched to the air, as dolls from inside zoomed after her like guided missiles.

Maybe even a certain teenage wizard boy avoiding flying balls of iron in a game of flying brooms may not compare to the way Marisa avoided the army of gunpowder-filled dolls going after her. Ahem. Maybe.

She made an S-shaped maneuver as three dolls exploded into orange balls of flame, missing her by inches. The light from the explosion revealed a panicky expression on Marisa's face. Right now, she was relying more on instinct rather than skill, as with amazing speed more of the dolls zoomed after her. One just missed shoving a razor right at her face when she made a sudden swerve, just as tiny strands of blonde hair flew, grazed by the dreadful blade.

_That's not fair! I'm not a youkai, I can't see in the dark! _Now she understood why the dolls didn't release danmaku. Alice was a strategist. She knew that Marisa couldn't see well in the dark. Firing danmaku will only betray her dolls' position.

Still gripping her Hakkero, she rained shots against her tiny pursuers, while rising even higher. Her barrage of rapid fire managed to shoot down six or seven dolls, but one went and exploded right in front of her face, blinding her momentarily, just as another flew straight through the shrinking flame, wielding an iron spike. "Wah!"

She swerved down just in time, but the doll flew right into her hat. "Bee in my bonnet!" she spluttered, grabbed her hat midair and threw it away as if avoiding the plague. By sheer luck, her throw was a hat trick. (Ouch, pun!) It hit two more enemy dolls and exploded in balls of flame, sending thick black smoke rising into the air and the charred pieces raining down. Marisa looked down at the dim light from Alice's house windows growing smaller and more distant.

"Aw, my hat…" Marisa lamented. At least that's all of the dolls that Alice sent after her…

…so far.

She didn't have time to be sad for her loss, as far underneath, Alice cried out, "Spring Kyoto Dolls!"

From inside the house, tens of dolls zoomed after Marisa like even more guided missiles. Noticing a swarm of black dots heading towards her, Marisa responded by flying at full speed, her hands and face already numb from the cold. She was aiming for the dark impenetrable ceiling of clouds above.

Zap! The dolls looked like dogs struggling against their leash as that was as far as Alice's magical strings could extend. Marisa heaved out a huge sigh, her hands trembling from the sheer cold and tension of the fight.

But then the dolls release their shots. "Wah!" she let out a gasp, and dodged them artfully, her numb arms making maneuvering her brooms even harder. She even had to make a midair spin. But at least, dodging colorful danmaku was much easier than near-invisible dolls.

At last, the danger was over. "Wow, Alice is being extra mean," she muttered to herself, and decided to stop by her house to change her clothes. "I took my hat off for her though, that was some danmaku fight she gave me."

* * *

_Boom! That's some dogfight. I mean, doll-fight? Okay, ignore my lame puns._

_I know Marisa-Alice is a famous pairing, but I'll leave that open for speculation. Alice did have the habit of making dolls of others, like the three mischievous fairies._

_Teaser: Next chapter, there'll be four of a kind._


	14. Four of A Kind

_Uu~ uu!_

* * *

**Chapter 14: Four of A Kind**

_[Start of Background Music: Sakuya's Theme - Flowering Night]_

Flandre gave a wide grin, showing a pair of fangs. "No."

"Flandre…" Remilia said with an annoyed expression.

"Let's play tag!" Flandre exclaimed suddenly, and rose to the air, up to the vaulted ceiling. She looked as if she was going to zoom towards the three standing in front of her: Remilia, Sakuya and Patchouli. "Danmaku tag!"

"Wha-?" Remilia was surprised by Flandre's invitation.

"Ojou-sama, let me handle-," Sakuya offered, but Remilia put out a hand.

"No. Let _me _handle this, and you, Sakuya, will have to wait for your punishment."

"Of course, ojou-sama," Sakuya replied meekly.

But then a pale-faced Patchouli pointed upwards.

Flandre had split into four identical images. "Catch the real me, o-nee-sama!" all four called out at the same time.

"They're images! Don't let even one of them escape," Remilia commanded.

"Yes!" Sakuya and Patchouli replied in unison.

Meanwhile, all four Flandres aimed their shots at Patchouli. "Patchy, catch!"

The magician rolled aside frantically, just as she produced a spell card of her own.

"Don't use anything lethal!" Remilia reminded. Flandre turned around. Remilia was right behind her. "Oh, failed ambush, eh?"

"Yeah," Flandre replied, but Remilia was faster. She shot a barrage of danmaku, and that image Flandre disappeared.

Sakuya was exchanging shots with another one, while her knife managed to hit that Flandre's hat. A hit in the hat wouldn't count as an injury, if that Flandre wasn't an image. The image dissolved into nothingness.

But Patchouli was having a fierce exchange of danmaku with another one. She appeared to be overpowered by that Flandre. "Water Sign, Bury In Lake!" A giant wall of water roared towards her attacker, accompanied by thin streams of super-cool ice. Flandre deftly avoided the violent assault, while responding with danmaku shots of her own. She descended just as the wall of water followed her, reducing in height, but increasing in strength.

"I got a feeling that that's the real one!" Remilia exclaimed, while Sakuya gave a grunt of approval.

Sakuya stopped time, and plucked that Flandre out of thin air, and gave her a bonk on the head. Then time resumed its flow.

"Ow! No fair! Who did that?" Flandre asked, and then her eyes locked into Sakuya's. The maid was holding her by her shoulders, preventing her from running away.

"Now stop this silliness, Flandre, and we'll reconsider your request," Remilia spoke in her ear, over the roar of rushing water.

The roaring walls of water were approaching. "No," that Flandre refused with a grin.

"Ojou-sama…" Sakuya pointed upwards.

"Huh?"

High up above, a flash of red just zoomed away, leaving a cracked ceiling that rained a cloud of fine dust.

"It's a trick!" Sakuya and Remilia exclaimed at the same time. Meanwhile, the Flandre image suddenly grabbed Sakuya's arm and with a ridiculous amount of strength dragged her towards the approaching tsunami. "Stop, stop!" the maid cried out. "Patchouli! I'm going to get -," but then she remembered that she could stop time. Freezing time again, she escaped Flandre's grasp and retreated, just as the image got swallowed by the violent torrent.

"Phew, that was close," Sakuya muttered with a relieved smile.

But then the cloud of dust descended on the three. Remilia and Sakuya sneezed, but Patchouli was the worst one off.

"Atchoo!" Boom. "Atchoo atchoo atchoo!" Triple destructive boom. A series of coughs and sneezes, and even more explosions.

The cloud of dust triggered her asthma, and the time when casting a spell card was the worst time to have a seizure. She sneezed and coughed uncontrollably, sending destructive danmaku everywhere in a haphazard pattern.

"Patchouli! You're going to hit us!" Sakuya cried out, frantically dodging. But Remilia had already gone ahead of her, passing through the magician's lunatic firing at breakneck speed, and right after Flandre.

It took a few more moments before Patchouli's breathing has stabilized enough for her to dispel her spell card. "Sorry," she said, coughing. "I think they're heading to the library. We better stop them before they reach it."

An annoyed Sakuya replied, "The repairs for all the damages will be paid from your allowance." The right hem of her skirt was encased in ice.

"Mukyu!" and Patchouli got another seizure.

Remilia sped after Flandre, firing even more danmaku, but Flandre swerved, turning to the right. "Ha! That's a dead end! Tag!" but when she reached the end, it was not a dead end, but instead the hallway led right into the library. "H-how's that even possible?"

Sakuya arrived at the scene. "This hallway's a dead end! How could she-,"

"She erased the wall by crushing the 'eye' of its existence," Remilia replied in an ominous whisper.

"That's just…"

A wheezing Patchouli arrived at the scene. "This hallway's a dead end! How could she-,"

"She erased the wall by crushing the 'eye' of its existence," Sakuya explained in an ominous whisper.

"Don't mimic me!" Remilia scolded.

"Ah, ojou-sama, forgive me, forgive me!" Sakuya pleaded.

"Humph, now it's going to be even harder to find her," Remilia huffed.

Meanwhile, in a corner in the library, Flandre suppressed a giggle. "Yay, I won!" she said to herself.

On the study table, a sleeping Koakuma got up. She was Patchouli's library assistant, a lesser devil with bat-like wings on the sides of her head of red hair and behind her back and dressed in a black and white dress. Still dreamy, she rubbed her eyes. _What's that sound? Is it a rat or- _turning the corner, she saw Flandre. "Kyaaaa!"

The scream alerted the three. They hurried into the library and found Koakuma on the floor with her head buried under a pile of books. Her dress was still smoking.

"She must still be around!" Sakuya exclaimed, and the three started searching. Going along the aisle, she decided to first check the windows, in case Flandre attempted to get out.

Right at the moment, Marisa flew above the gates of the mansion and landed right in front of the door. Meiling the gatekeeper had seen her, and ran after her. "Stop! Intruder! No entry without permiss-,"

But suddenly, Sakuya herself opened the door.

"Ah, Marisa, how pleasant it is to see you," Sakuya said with an exaggerated smile. "We're in need of some help here."

* * *

_Dun dun! Flandre could really cause some mischief, eh?_

_ Teaser: Well, will Marisa help? _


	15. Naughty Sister of the Scarlet Devil

_Let there be danmaku! _

* * *

**Chapter 15: Naughty Sister of the Scarlet Devil**

_[Start of Background Music: Patchouli's Theme ~ Locked Girl]_

"You need my help? Why?" Marisa asked, completely not expecting Sakuya's request.

"Flandre escaped," the maid explained, unable to hide her troubled expression.

"Serves you right for creating winter ze," Marisa pointed out with a grin.

"What?"

"You're in for some mischief again, right? Your mistress is," Marisa continued her line of accusation.

"What are you talking about? Us, causing this sudden winter? Ojou-sama hates the cold as much as the next person!" Sakuya skillfully dodged the barrage of blame. She already expected that coming. Why else would that magician come in the unholy hour before dawn? Although maybe she was just picking the moment where security might be the most lax to 'borrow' some more books.

"Weren't you carrying mist-making reagents into the forest?" Marisa took out her trump card.

"Maybe you got the wrong person," Sakuya made a wobbly excuse.

"Nope, no one could mistake anyone else for you, ze. Only this mansion's maids wear that kind of uniform," Marisa deduced.

Sakuya's eyes narrowed. "No, I think you're mistaken. And we have nothing to do with this winter. Even Patchouli's puzzled by it. Besides, if it's our fault, shouldn't there be some clues to it, like mist coming out of the mansion, or the temperature is coldest here, and all that? I thought you're really good in solving incidents," Sakuya added.

"Not really, it's usually just some random curb stomping," Marisa dismissed. "But I'm still not convinced until I see Patchy herself."

"Fine," Sakuya sighed. "But Patchouli's preoccupied with the Flandre issue. Her answer won't be any different from mine."

"Remilia?"

"Same as Patchouli."

Marisa sighed, putting her hands on her hip. "What do you people have to hide, ze?"

"I said we're not causing any incidents!" then she sighed. "Fine, give us a help with Flandre, then we'll explain everything," Sakuya gave way.

"Excellent, but Flandre was kind of powerful, so this'll better be worth it!"

"Turn every rock, search every corner, Ojou-sama is not causing this sudden winter," Sakuya asserted.

"I'll see that for myself," Marisa replied smoothly.

"Even if, say, someone saw me carrying what they assumed to be mist-making materials, how can mist create winter and snow? Mist and snow are very different things."

"Fine, fine, fine!" Marisa dismissed with a wave of her hand, stepping past Sakuya into the mansion with her arms behind her head. "If I want lengthy explanations, I'll ask Patchy, ze."

"Help us get at Flandre first," Sakuya repeated, but Marisa ignored her and walked at her own pace in the library's general direction. She was too familiar as to not lose her way. Her numerous 'borrowing' exploits gave her enough knowledge of the mansion's layout and passageways to avoid the combined wrath of Patchouli, Sakuya and her maids many, many times.

"Where's she?" Marisa asked, adjusting her hat's position. She did stop by at her house after the fight with Alice's dolls to take another hat. Her hats were as much a part of her as her broomstick or mini-hakkero.

"In the great library," Sakuya replied, "but she could escape any time. She may not be there anymore. Patchouli and ojou-sama are trying to get her. If either they or you succeed, we'll talk about all this sudden winter matter. What we know about it, or what Patchouli knows."

Marisa gave a grunt of approval.

Meanwhile, in the library, Patchouli closed in on a cornered Flandre. But the little girl vampire only grinned.

"Flandre…" Patchouli sounded more than nervous. "We're going to discuss everything after this, okay? So please don't…"

"Patchy-nee, one coin!"

"What?"

"It means, you can't continue."

"…" Patchouli was at loss for words. The tension made a drop of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.

Flandre was holding a bent metal wand with both of its ends shaped like a spade with one hand while the other hand was brandishing a spell card. Patchouli really had a reason to worry. If Flandre released the spell card, she'll destroy more books than what Marisa could steal in a lifetime.

"Can you guess what spell card is this?"

"Flandre, if you destroy the library, Remilia will be very angry. She won't forgive you easily," Patchouli tried to reason with the little devil. She knew that right now, she should call out to Remilia for aid but that may only cause Flandre to release her spellcard.

"Come on, give a guess."

"Ripple of 495 Years?"

"Aww…" Flandre gave out a disappointed moan. "How did you guess correctly?"

"I know."

"So you cheated?" the little girl's eyes widened, as she lowered the hand holding the spell card. The magician rushed forward towards her.

_Before it's too late, before it's too late!_

An explosion.

"No!" Patchouli cried out.

But it was not a wave of book destruction. Patchouli turned around to see Marisa, holding a smoking mini-hakkero. "Yo, Flandre, let's play outside ze, shall we?" she added with a wink.

Flandre was looking at her own burnt hand in disbelief. "Oh, it's the human Marisa," she mused. But her face seemed lit up with joy. When Marisa fired her barrage of danmaku, she somehow still managed to hold onto her spell card. Thinking up on Marisa's offer while watching the burnt skin regenerating instantaneously, Flandre then gave a wide grin to show her reply. She was interested.

Marisa took confident steps towards the little vampire. "So, how is it? Wanna play in the snow?"

"Yeah!" Flandre replied almost instantly, eyes glinting.

"Well, if I win, you'll have to listen to nee-chan and company. But if I lose, well, there's no way I'll lose, so I'm not giving you that option, ze!"

"If you lose I want to play outside, going wherever I want to until tomorrow with no one bothering, and you'll be my playmate for a month."

Patchouli protested. "Marisa! Our goal in the first place was to not let Flandre out at any cost!" But Marisa just walked past her as if she was a shelf of books.

"Yo, long time no see," Marisa put a hand on Flandre's head, passing by the vampire and heading towards the window. The little vampire was shocked by the friendly gesture and backed out a few steps, adjusting her mob cap while wearing a puzzled expression.

"What's that for?"

"Well, let's say that I'm not scared of you, ze," Marisa turned her head to answer with a friendly smile. Then she opened the window. Cold air rushed in. "Are you okay with the cold? That's how snow is like."

Meanwhile, in another aisle of the library, Sakuya stopped in her tracks to see Remilia engrossed in reading a book.

"Ojou-sama!"

"Ah! Sorry, I can't help it! This book captured my interest. It's not that thick, but it must've been magical because whenever I wanted to find information on something, I turned the next page, and voila, there's the information that I need!"

Sakuya cocked her head. "Wikipedia?" she muttered, reading the book's title. "Never mind that, ojou-sama! Patchouli found Flandre!"

"Then what are you doing here? Help her!" Remilia responded, her eyes widening, standing up. She put the book on the stool she was sitting on and hurried towards the human maid. "I'll join you myself if I have to."

"Well, Marisa came. I told her about Flandre, and she agreed to help."

Judging by Remilia's expression, that bit of information seemed to come as a bit of surprise. But then she grinned. "Interesting. Like last time, eh?"

"Yes, like last time. We better see what comes out of it."

"Indeed. Maybe I'll even see how much Flandre has grown."

"Ojou-sama!"

"What?"

"Aren't you not supposed to hope that Flandre will win?" Sakuya inquired.

"Maybe you're right, but why shouldn't I?" Remilia gave a shrug and a grin. Sakuya only shook her head. A few aisles away, the two turned round the corner to see Marisa opening the window leading outside.

"See you on the roof da ze!" Marisa exclaimed. Then she jumped out of the window.

_What?_ Sakuya and Remilia thought at the same time, just as an excited Flandre rushed towards the window at an amazing speed. Remilia sped after her, a pink blur going after red, but just as she reached the window ledge, she missed catching her sister by milliseconds. But then, shrugging, the vampire mistress straightened up and brushed the dust off her clothes.

"Ojou-sama, you're not going after them?"

Remilia spun to look at Sakuya. "No. Let the human magician do her work. But first, I want to know, Sakuya. Did Marisa ask about the winter?"

"Yes, she suspected it's us," Sakuya explained. "She claimed to see-," but then Sakuya put a hand over her mouth, realizing that she had said half a sentence too many.

"Yes?"

Sakuya's heart skipped a beat. But then, she knew that as the perfect servant, she shouldn't be hiding anything from her mistress, even if it means she would get punished. "She claimed to see me carrying the reagents for making mist."

"What? How could you be so careless?" Remilia half shouted.

"My apologies, please forgive my mistake!" Sakuya pleaded with a bow.

Remilia stared at the head maid, her expression unyielding. "We'll discuss the disciplinary consequence later. Right now, make sure Flandre is taken care of. If Marisa failed, you and Patchy will stop Flandre at all cost. As for me," Remilia gave a slightly derisive smile, "because of your mistake, I'm paying someone a visit."

* * *

**Oops. Turns out no danmaku yet. Yet. **

**Teaser: Who's Remilia visiting? The 'whodunit' mystery begins to unravel!**


	16. Imperishable Winter versus Reprise

_Sorry for the lateness. I got into some trouble in class, and got some scolding. Maybe it's the NEET in me. :P_

_*dramatic music. The mystery starts to unravel. I wonder if anyone guessed correctly so far. _

* * *

**Chapter 16: Imperishable Winter versus Reprise**

Reimu did not let her eyes leave the fairies for even a moment. When they requested to get the materials from their home, Reimu put a condition that Cirno and one of the trio will have to stay at her shrine, something like a hostage so that they wouldn't run away.

"I'm giving you ten minutes, or your friend here gets what's coming to her," Reimu spoke with a threatening stare, her arms folded.

A rope-bound Star Sapphire was trembling. She was smiling as was usual but a drop of cold sweat was on her forehead. "Guys, w-why is it me this time?"

"Usually you're the first to run away," Luna pointed out. Sunny agreed with her.

"Ahaha," Star chuckled nervously.

"Nine minutes!" Reimu reminded them. Actually she agreed with the fairy's decision. She didn't tell them, but if Sunny was bound, she could turn invisible and escape. And if Luna was bound, she could silence herself and escape requiring just a moment of carelessness. But Star's ability only allowed her to detect danger, not escape it. Her power was for prevention, not escaping.

And besides her, Cirno was bound because she was not a part of the trio. If she was not bound, she would escape and not return, maybe as payback for a past 'great war' between them.

Hearing Reimu's reminder, the other two fairies were gone in a second.

"Can I make you some tea?" Star offered.

"No," Reimu replied curtly.

"Ice-cream?" Cirno offered.

Reimu facepalmed. "In winter? Can't you make a better excuse? It's not like I'm going to untie you two because of such a lame reason."

The two fairies sighed. "There goes my grand escape plan," Cirno whined.

"Yeah, your plan is really a smart one. Lucky I noticed," Reimu said with more than a tiny bit of sarcasm.

"I know," Cirno insisted, which made even Star Sapphire facepalm herself, if her hands and legs weren't tied.

"I'm cold," Star tried to make another excuse to make Reimu lower her guard.

"Me too," Cirno added, ruining Star's excuse.

_An ice fairy? Complaining of the cold? _That even made Reimu sigh. "Not even a good try."

"Oh yeah? Try this!" Cirno froze the air around her, creating a kind of mini hailstorm. Brute force suited her better.

But Reimu had been prepared. A single danmaku shot hit the back of Cirno's head, and the mini storm dispersed.

"Ow my heaaad!" the fairy was seeing stars.

"Don't even try, will you?" an annoyed Reimu scolded. The shot would not even injure, but still, the pain should be lesson enough. Something feeling like being tasered and paintballed at the same time.

"I won't give up!" Cirno insisted, but Reimu took a more traditional course of action.

BONK.

"Ow!" a smoking bump appeared on Cirno's head. The good ol' bonk-on-the-head.

"They say that if you do that too often, the person, or fairy will turn stupid," Star commented.

"I'm not getting any stupider!" Cirno responded, which made Reimu and Star sigh.

"Yeah, you're not," Reimu replied, heavy with sarcasm.

"Can I make you some tea?" Star offered again, putting on her most innocent face. But Reimu didn't even respond. A long, uneasy silence passed between them.

"Yep, that's ten minutes," Reimu turned towards the two.

"Kyaaaaaaaah!" they screamed, trying to wriggle away like maggots.

"Just kidding," Reimu dismissed. Star was trembling like jelly. And it was not because of the cold.

When Luna and Sunny arrived with miniature tools and materials, Reimu untied Star and Cirno. "Remember, if any one of you four runs away, or tried to, all of you remaining will get what's coming to you. It's a promise."

"What! No fair!" Sunny protested.

"It's not like you all have a choice. So just, don't let any of you run away and finish fixing my door. I give you all fifteen minutes."

"Ha! Now that I'm untied, feel the full wrath of my-," BONK. Cirno got another hit on the head.

"I said don't even try," Reimu threatened, her hand balled in a fist.

"Cirno, if you try to run away…" Sunny, Luna and Star shot threatening gazes at Cirno that made even the ice fairy shiver. The tools that they were holding even made them look murderous.

The fairies started their work. Reimu yawned. She wondered where Marisa was at the moment. She felt left behind. Marisa could probably be battling her way to the main boss already right now. And here she was, the great shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei, heroine and protector of Gensokyo, commanding little fairies to fix a broken door.

The work was done in just a few minutes. Checking the door, Reimu gave a grunt of satisfaction. Then she turned to the fairies. "Before I let you get away, I want to ask you all something."

The four fairies faced her, looking apprehensive.

"Do you know what caused the sudden winter?"

"No," said Star. "Nuh uh," Sunny denied. Luna shook her head. "No idea, but better enjoy it while it's here," Cirno added.

"You all have no idea at all?" Reimu asked with a sigh. _Fairies are fairies after all._

"But wait!" Star interrupted. "There was a rabbit nee-chan that wanted to catch Cirno because she said her master wanted to dissect us. We all got caught, but turned out it was Eirin. She said she wanted to make something from Cirno's blood and cool the air."

"I ended up all woozy!" Cirno added.

"I see," Reimu muttered. "That was really useful information! Thank you very much!" she said with excitement in her voice.

"Glad to help!" Star added, although a little bit unnecessarily, as Reimu followed her cheerful manner with a frightening threat.

"Now get out of my sight, I'm itching to do some fairy extermination."

"Waaaaaaah!" and the four fairies were gone like the wind.

Reimu only shook her head. Then she chuckled. "Fairies can be really funny sometimes." Then she chuckled again. But after that her expression turned thoughtful. "Well, if what they said was true, then I'll need to check on the crowd in Eientei. Maybe I'll end up doing some rabbit-whacking and immortal-bashing, again."

But then she turned silent. She sensed a presence approaching her shrine. It carried an aura of malice.

Thud. Remilia Scarlet landed in front of her, her eyes glinting under the faint light of the moon.

"I take it the snow had really stopped? Does snow count as running water?" Reimu teased.

"Snow _is_ water, but it doesn't run," Remilia replied, sounding annoyed. "Marisa is at my place. Sakuya told me she suspected me to be the perpetrator behind this sudden winter."

"Does falling from the clouds count as running?"

"Um…" Remilia pondered the question a bit, but then, she replied, "Get back to the main point, okay? I'm not wasting my time here."

"Sure. So did Marisa pwn you?" Reimu asked, keeping a straight face. "Master Spark you in the face?"

"Flandre escaped. When I left the mansion, Marisa was keeping her entertained. Never mind all that. I'm asking you this: Do you know who's the perpetrator of this overnight winter?"

"I have a guess."

"Tell me!"

"Why do you want to know that badly?" Reimu asked. She was suspicious.

"Let's say that I don't like what they've done," Remilia looked cross. But she didn't tell that it was because the incident made it hard for her to start her own.

Yes, she had not started her incident yet. The mist was not yet released. She had ordered Patchouli to refrain from launching the mist, because the winter would eclipse her achievement. But of course, she would not tell Reimu that.

"I'm suspecting the Lunarians," Reimu replied with a sigh. "I got a source of information saying that the Moon pharmacist wanted to use ice fairy blood to cool the air. Maybe she overdid it."

"I knew it that there's someone behind all this!" Remilia exclaimed, but the realization sounded redundant. "So, why aren't you going there and knocking some sense to them?"

"Ah, coming from you that sounds kinda weird," Reimu noted.

"Well, I'm a little bit preoccupied right now," Remilia replied. "I need to check on Flandre after this."

"Marisa should be doing fine," Reimu assured.

"Humph," Remilia huffed. But then both their eyes widened as a person walked through the oriental archway in front of Hakurei shrine. She had dark grey eyes, long white hair in a large braid behind her back, and was carrying a pair of bow and arrow. Her clothing was red and blue with constellation patterns, while her head was topped by a nurse's cap. As she made her way towards the pair on the verandah, the lady threw a sharp gaze towards them, piercing with an indiscernible intention.

"Talk of the devil," Remilia whispered. "It's Eirin Yagokoro. Let's ask her to give our summer back."

"Coming from you, that sounds really weird," Reimu commented. "But yeah, Gensokyo wants its summer back."

* * *

_So it's the Lunarians? So Reimu will have to steamroll Eientei? Kaguya will be more than annoyed, although I don't think she really had better things to do. But is it really them? What if it's not? What if it is? Mwahahaha… Are you confused now?_

_Teaser: Lävatein!_


	17. Catadioptric Catastrophe

_Inspired by a Youtube video. Try saying the title as fast as you can 50 times, and I'll point and laugh._

* * *

**Chapter 17: Catadioptric Catastrophe**

_[Start of Background Music: U. N. Owen Was Her?]_

Marisa jumped out of the window, the night wind rushing against her face, the sensation of freefall firing up her adrenaline. Holding out her hand in front of her, her broom flew towards her outstretched palm, and nimbly she hoisted herself up on the seat. _Geez, I forgot how cold it was. Trying to act cool makes me cold, again._ She held her broom firmly, steadily rising to the air.

Flandre Scarlet had followed her through the window. "C… cold," the little vampire wrapped her arms around herself. "It's colder than ice cream!"

"Yep, this is snow, Flandre ze," Marisa explained. "Of course it's cold, it's like having ice cream all around you."

"Ew, sticky," she commented.

"No, snow is not sweet, so it's not sticky," Marisa explained patiently.

"Blood is not sweet, so why is it sticky?"

"Uh," Marisa thought for a moment. "I don't drink blood, so ask your sister." The pair was rising to the air slowly, finding the right position to begin the battle. "Uh, you cold?"

"Yes, very," Flandre replied, shivering. Having stayed indoors for 495 years, her apparel was much more suited for indoors. But then Marisa zoomed towards her. _What? _Flandre's eyes widened. _She asked the question to distract me!_ She instinctively released a wave of danmaku.

Marisa dodged skillfully, a frown creasing her forehead, but then she reached the little vampire, who quickly activated her spell card, "Taboo, Lävatein!"

A great sweeping laser shot out of her wand in an arc, throwing an insane red light that lit Flandre's expression of fierce enjoyment, while sparks of danmaku crackled, bursting out in its wake. Marisa plunged downwards to avoid the singeing beam, while Flandre directed the beam towards her direction. It hit the mansion's clock tower, blasting off one of the needles on the huge clock face while leaving a long scorch line.

"Sakuya'll be mad at you!" Marisa taunted. "And Patchy! And Remilia!"

Flandre whipped her wand, but Marisa was closing in. The little girl's eyes widened as Marisa fumbled for something underneath her cloak. Her movement became more frantic, trying to hit the advancing witch like madly swatting a fly. But tons of experience provided Marisa enough reflex to dodge the violent whipping.

"Gotcha!" Marisa threw something at Flandre as she passed by her, and for the vampire, everything turned dark.

"Mmph!" Flandre struggled to take that thing off. It was just a harmless black cloak. She turned around. Marisa was nowhere to be seen.

"Boo!" the magician shouted, hanging upside down from her broom, her face inches from Flandre's. They were so close that Flandre could even smell the dangling curtain of golden hair.

"Wah!" the vampire responded by redirecting the laser, but she then noticed that her wand was no longer in her hand. It had fallen when Marisa threw her cloak on her.

"I never said we're starting ze," Marisa told her.

"You rushed at me first! I was supposed to start with Taboo – Cranberry Trap!" Flandre shouted, pointing a finger at Marisa.

"No, I was going to lend you my winter cloak. Just return it as soon as we're done, okay? You live a lot longer than I do."

"Th-thanks? Why?" Flandre asked. But she wrapped them around herself anyway, pinning the brooch.

"Because you're cold," Marisa answered simply. "Turns out I had to give it the rough way."

"My wand, can I take it?" Flandre asked.

"Sure," Marisa shrugged. "Once you have your wand, we'll begin."

"Fooled you, but I already launched my Cranberry Trap!" Flandre exclaimed, distancing herself from Marisa at the speed of a plane. From four corners around them, rune sigils floating midair spouted danmaku balls the size of watermelons, floating and bouncing haphazardly against nothing midair, moving randomly, but actually following a rough pattern towards the center.

Marisa gasped. Then she realized that when Flandre said, 'I was supposed to start with Taboo – Cranberry Trap,' the little girl weren't actually complaining. In fact, by stating the card's name, she was actually releasing the spell card she was hiding behind her back.

"Why you little devil!" Marisa murmured, dodging the danmaku balls.

"I'm really good at this," Flandre said, moving her arms while trying to make the danmaku zoom in Marisa's direction.

"Ha! But no cranberry juice for you, Flandre!" Marisa said, craftily dodging.

"Onee-sama said humans can be turned to drinks," Flandre replied as calmly as if saying that tea was made from leaves.

"And vampires can be turned to dust!" Marisa started opening fire. It's Flandre's turn to dodge. Being a vampire with the gift of speed, she spiraled around Marisa's line of fire, plunging downwards like a shooting star.

Marisa sped after her on her broom. Noticing her pursuer, Flandre unleashed yet another spell card. "Forbidden Barrage - Counter Clock!"

Two huge cross-shaped laser spun mid air like a pair of fan blades the size of helicopter rotor blades, but Flandre made them to be aligned in such a way that Marisa would have to pass through both of the spinning lasers to reach her. Meanwhile, from both of her hands, a generous amount of danmaku shot out, distanced quite close together.

_Ouch, _Marisa winced as one of the danmaku hit her broom, jarring her entire body, and of all times, that was the worst, as it was right at the moment she was going to pass through the first of the spinning lasers. "Gah! MASTER SPARK!"

Flandre's eyes widened as a huge stream of rainbow-colored energy rushed in her direction, swallowing all her danmaku like a river. Avoiding it a millisecond too late, it caught her left leg, causing her to shriek in pain, falling downwards while clutching it.

_It's over? _Marisa wondered. _Wait, she's going to fall and break her neck! But… should I care?_ But then, seeing that Flandre did not look like rising, Marisa gave a sigh and throttled her broom to full speed.

Twenty meters from hitting the ground, Flandre let out a grin as her eyes caught what she was looking for. Instead of falling limply, she rushed downwards and landed on the roof of the mansion, breaking the tiles and sending a cloud of dust flying everywhere.

"What?" a surprised Marisa spluttered. She tried to pull up, realizing that it was a feint. Just as the cloud of dust dispersed, revealing a gaping hole, a huge laser shot out.

Flandre, when she landed on the roof, managed to grab her wand Lävatein and sinking through the crumpling section, she landed inside the attic, holding her wand. Setting her sights out of the gaping hole, she locked her eyes on the approaching dark blot in the sky. "Target locked: Miss Marisa," she muttered, and with a flourish, let release a huge laser blast that was even bigger than the hole she fell into.

Marisa, seeing the blinding red light erupt, instantaneously responded with another huge shot, "Master Spark!"

Her rainbow colored magic met the red laser midair, but the laser was much bigger and started to swallow Marisa's.

Underneath the attic, Flandre gave the shot her all, putting both of her hands into channeling her energy into the laser. Realizing that she wouldn't be able to see Marisa through the hole's narrow viewpoint, she burst out of it into the night, just as the laser shrunk and faded from her hand.

And Marisa was nowhere in sight. "Marisa?" Flandre asked.

Chu~ Marisa gave Flandre a peck on the cheek and retreated.

"Ew!" Flandre spluttered, frantically rubbing the spot as if trying to erase any remnants of the kiss. Her cheeks flushed, she shouted, "What's that for?"

"Boom!" Marisa replied, gripping her mini-hakkero and starting to shoot rapidly. Flandre dodged by instinct, but one of the shots hit her wing, sending a jarring vibration across her entire body. Flandre responded with a barrage of shots of her own.

Marisa moved a step to the right, and fell into the gaping hole on purpose, letting gravity help her dodge the shot.

"What?" Flandre was taken by surprise, when suddenly underneath her feet, the roof exploded as Marisa shot another Master Spark from below, throwing the vampire a few feet to the air. "Ow, my leg," she moaned, a tear forming in her eyes, but even before her leg healed itself, she shot another barrage of danmaku into the still smoking newly formed hole.

But Marisa burst out of the other hole, chuckling. "Nope, I'm here! Da ze!"

Just as she saw Marisa's mini-hakkero glow with another shot, Flandre banged her fist with inhuman strength against the section of the roof she's on. It flipped like a see-saw, sending her rolling into the smoking hole, sinking into the attic again.

Her eyes narrowing, Marisa followed her adversary. She jumped into the attic holding her broom.

But this time, the inside of the attic was not dark. It was lit by an eerie bluish-white glow, and balls of danmaku bigger than her head, trailing even more danmaku behind them like comets with luminous tails.

"Forbidden Barrage - Catadioptric!" Flandre's voice echoed in the darkness.

The spell card, even if being not too fast, was very destructive in enclosed space. As countless danmaku hit the roof from inside, a great cacophony of destruction ensued: Crumpling roof, broken beams, collapsing ceiling underfoot, rubble and dust raining… and Marisa found herself running like mad, being chased and cornered by glowing balls. She couldn't use her broom in there, as numerous wooden beams will make passing through them very hard, or even injurious. "Geez, I'm out of Master Sparks!" she exclaimed in dismay, nearly giving up.

Crumble. "Waaaah!" The floor beneath her collapsed, and Marisa fell into a hallway a floor down where ice crystals covered a section of it, surrounded by a pool of water. Shaken and shocked, it was all she can do to not let go of her broom, hanging from it by an arm, the broom stopping just three meters from hitting the floor.

Even as chunks of rubble and pieces of the broken roof rained around, Marisa sighed in relief. She was beyond lucky. She might not know it, but the hallway was where Flandre had cracked the ceiling during her showdown with asthmatic Patchouli and the others. That was the reason the ceiling had crumbled beneath her feet.

_[End of U. N. Owen Was Her?]_

_[Silence]_

_[Next Background Music: Marisa's Theme: Love-Colored Magic, from Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream]_

But in front of her, she was facing a very irked Patchouli, and Sakuya the chief maid wearing an exaggerated smile. "MARISA! WE NEVER SAID YOU COULD BLOW THE MANSION APART!"

"Wah!" Marisa let out a gasp as a barrage of knives and a wave of elemental sparks avalanched after her across the hallway, the barrage so heavy that even the casters were not visible behind the curtain of danmaku.

Seeing that there was no closer route of escape except for the window ahead, Marisa shot through the air like an arrow, approaching the lonely window just as a silhouette appeared outside.

"Ha!" Flandre hovering in front of the window was just considering whether to release yet another spell card. "Eh?" she said, seeing the figure of Marisa heading towards her.

An almighty crash. Shards of glass flew everywhere as Marisa, using her hat to cover her face, broke through the window, practically bumping into Flandre midair, the vampire finding herself sitting on Marisa's broom with her face pressed against Marisa's hat.

"Eh?" Marisa pulled her hat away, and found herself staring into Flandre's eyes, a mere two inch separating them. "Waaaaa!" she screamed from the shock, nearly falling off her broom.

"You're scared of me?"

"No way in hell, ze!" Marisa denied with a harried expression. She was still breathing hard from the shock plus the adrenaline filled battle and chase. "You blew the roof! Patchy and Sakuya were really mad!" The broom was flying slowly, getting further and further from the mansion.

"Uh oh," Flandre muttered. "Onee-sama will be really mad. Really really mad."

"KIRISAME!" Sakuya called out from the ruined window.

"I'm just borrowing her, ze!" Marisa replied cheekily with a shout.

"What?" Flandre exclaimed.

"Oh, come on, let's not return while they're still mad," Marisa added with a wink.

"Sounds… good enough," Flandre turned around facing forward. "Can I go back later for breakfast?"

"Later," Marisa replied with a cheerful smile. "For now, let's just enjoy the winter."

Flandre gave a small fanged smile and rested her back against Marisa, enjoying the feeling of cold wind rushing against her face. Marisa put one of her arms around the little vampire and even helped her fasten the cloak she gave.

But then Sakuya leapt out of the window and chased after them, bursting through the air.

* * *

_Now that's what I call a fight! I hope I made it enjoyable enough. It's one of those chapters that made me worry if I'm making it wrong. I really racked my brain trying to picture epic battle maneuvers. I hope I didn't fail, it left me really mentally exhausted._

_Teaser: Eirin revealing the cause of the incident? Really? Not sure. Wait for the next chapter to find out._


	18. Double Revelation

_Even more (of the mystery) is revealed! Squee! I can't wait! Warning, things may get really tense! _

* * *

**Chapter 18: Double Revelation**

_[Start of Background Music: Mystic Oriental Love Consultation - Reimu's theme from Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream]_

"Reimu Hakurei," Eirin Yagokoro greeted the shrine maiden.

"Eirin Yagokoro," Reimu returned her greeting, putting authority in her voice. Their gazes met, and an uneasy silence passed between them. It was still dark, with the black clouds still covering most of the sky, but far away, near the horizon, a light tinge could be seen, the signal of approaching dawn.

"Wha-? Don't, don't ignore me! I'm Remilia! The great vampire mistress of Scarlet Devil Mansion!"

Reimu let out a sigh. Then, taking a deep breath, she stated in her voice of authority, "Eirin Yagokoro, Hourai Pharmacist of Eientei, I, Reimu Hakurei, Shrine Maiden of Paradise, demands you to disclose all that you know about this unearthly winter that toppled the balance of Gensokyo, or my duty will require me to get the information out of you the hard way."

"My, my, someone's acting tough," Eirin made a snide remark, putting a hand on her hip. "What if I have no information to offer, or simply refused?"

"You know what I can do," Reimu replied. "It's what I do best."

"Geez, I said stop ignoring me!" Remilia exclaimed, sounding irritated. "Lunarian! Like Reimu said, we want to know about the sudden winter. We've heard that you made something to cool the air using ice fairy blood!"

At this, Eirin's eyes widened. Then she put her hand over her mouth, and chuckled. "Ufufu… What a ridiculous suggestion!" she denied. "I don't know what you are blabbering about."

"No, you do know," Reimu insisted. Her instinct told her that. "Stop it with the lies."

"And if you refuse, Reimu here will knock the information out of you," Remilia added into the threat. "Although, if she turned out to be hopelessly defeated-,"

"Heh, like that will ever happen," Reimu interrupted, but Remilia continued,

"-running away crying for help with tears in her eyes,"

"Uh, vampire? Don't push it," Reimu gave an exaggerated smile.

"-shouting 'Remilia-sama, I'm too weak, please help me!'"

"Like heck I'm going to say something as pathetic as that!" an irked Reimu protested.

"Then I'll go against you, and you'll have no chance," Remilia ended her statement while privately enjoying Reimu's reaction of being ignored.

But Reimu, with a "Humph," walked past Remilia to face Eirin, saying, "Very well, if you refuse, Eirin Yagokoro, I'll just have to turn to brute force."

"Don't, don't turn your back on me!" Remilia scolded.

Eirin chuckled, her gaze locked into Reimu's. "Is that so? Won't you listen first to what I have to offer?"

"Then offer it this instant!"

"What makes you think I'll reveal it so easily?"

"THAT'S IT!" Remilia burst out, swooping towards Eirin and grabbing the pharmacist's collar, "I told you not to ignore me, so now, answer!"

Eirin had to stoop, because of Remilia's, um, inferior height. "Ah, well, would you kindly release me, Miss Vampire? Because you see, it's not proper for me to talk in this state. It's not good for the vertebrae."

"Why you, you're implying that I'm sh-, ahem," Remilia cleared her throat before she slipped out saying 'short.'

But Reimu ruined it, saying, "Remilia, next time when grabbing collars, try someone your own height." Remilia shot her a more-than-annoyed glare.

"That's it, stop wasting my time, okay?" Remilia exclaimed angrily. "Now, go on and tell everything this instant!"

"Very well, can't we sit this out?" Eirin answered. "Reimu, is it okay if we're having some tea here? I do believe that Hakurei Shrine should provide greater hospitability to get more visitors and donations."

"Are you trying to fool around?" Reimu asked with hostility in her voice.

"You're the host, I'm a guest," Eirin walked past Reimu and sat on the verandah. "And, Remilia-san, if it's time you're worried about, I should worry more. Every minute from a healer's day is precious. I'm coming here at the cost of my own time."

"Well, if you can spend your time freezing Gensokyo…" Reimu snapped back.

"Ah, as I expected," Eirin gave a mysterious smile. "I already guessed that you are suspecting me, the hostile way you're acting."

"Well," Remilia put both of her hands behind her head, shutting an eye. "I think I could do with a cup of oriental tea. Reimu, you're the host," she said and sat opposite Eirin.

"Uh, Marisa's Master Spark ate my kettle," Reimu half-joked, raising a finger. She didn't know what made her say that. The other two stared at her wide-eyed. A moment of awkward silence. "Yeah, really."

Actually she had another kettle. The real reason was that she was too lazy to make another batch of tea just after having one with Marisa about an hour ago.

"What? We're freezing here!" Remilia complained. "Humph, you'll never be a good maid!"

"Why would I want to be a maid?"

"Isn't a shrine maid-en, a type of maid?" Remilia asked with childish confidence. Eirin and Reimu facepalmed.

"Ahem," Eirin cleared her throat. "Before this deviates into unrelated matters, I guess I'll better explain."

Reimu took her place on the verandah. Remilia and her gazed at the pharmacist, all eyes and ears, waiting for the revelation.

"Upon my pride as a Lunarian, and upon my pride as the Hourai Pharmacist, I swear that I am not the one causing this sudden winter. But…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Sakuya flew through the air over Misty Lake, sending out waves upon waves of knives thrown in circular danmaku patterns, in hot purchase of the runaway witch and vampire on a broom.

"Faster, Marisa, fasteeeer!" Flandre cheered Marisa on. But from her expression, it was as if she was enjoying the ride. "If Sakuya catches you, she'll cook and fricassee you alive!"

"Let me guess, and you'll be the one to eat it?" Marisa snapped back over the roar of the wind rushing against them.

"Meh, I can fly faster than this!" Flandre pouted.

"Aw, shut up and just bear with me, ze!" Marisa replied, not the least bit annoyed. Then she looked back. Sakuya was getting further and further away left behind. "We're losing Miss Old Maid back there."

Flandre poked her head out to look behind Marisa, "Uh, she cheated."

"Hmm, having to turn your head to look behind all the time is kinda hard, ze, maybe I should install side mirrors," she muttered absent-mindedly, turning her head to look at her pursuer.

Sakuya seemed to fly, disappear, then appear a distance closer, flying, then disappeared and reappeared a distance closer, like teleporting.

"Aw, curse it! I forgot she could stop time!"

Gaining on the duo, the maid spurted upwards, and released her spell card, "Conjuring – Illusional Misdirection!"

A fierce rain of knives descended upon the two. But just as Marisa fumbled for her mini-hakkero, a dark gaping hole suddenly appeared midair and swallowed her and Flandre.

Sakuya stopped midair, surprised at the sudden intervention. Underneath, a frozen Misty Lake reflected the faint light of the moon and stars, but far away, at the horizon, a lighter tinge was visible, a sign of the approaching dawn.

From the hole, a girl with yellow eyes and short blonde hair topped by a pink two-tailed hat stood, perched on the edge of the gap. Behind her, nine yellow and bushy tails swished silently. Her dress was white and blue in a style similar to Yukari's. The gap youkai was her master.

Ran Yakumo looked down upon the startled maid, and disappeared into the hole. The gap closed upon itself and disappeared.

Marisa burst out of the gap into a clearing in the Forest of Magic. Taken by surprise, she slammed right into a treetop on the opposite side before she could really put her broom to a complete stop.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Ah! My wing!"

The two tumbled down, luckily, with Flandre falling on Marisa, and not the other way round. Both were face down on the snowy ground, groaning in pain, Flandre spitting out a leaf and quickly getting on her feet. Her wand fell from above two seconds later, hitting Marisa on the head. Then Marisa's broom did the same thing. After countless "Ow" and "Ouch"s, the two stood shakily.

"I'm… starting to feel hungry," Flandre said in a small voice. "Flying with you made me hungry."

"Well, pardon me for smelling delicious, but don't try or I'll finish what I started and return you to mad onee-sama! Ow, my back…"

"Just kidding," Flandre grinned. Marisa threw her a suspicious glance.

_Why did I bring her with me in the first place?_

"Ahem," Ran Yakumo interrupted, landing in front of the two, on the clearing. The kitsune's face was grim. "I come on behalf of my master. She is not available for the moment. I know what you are seeking, Kirisame Marisa."

* * *

"Very well. I will tell you what is the real cause of this scorching summer disappearance," Eirin said, enjoying the suspenseful effect she created. Reimu and Remilia waited for her to continue, as still as statues, awaiting Eirin's revelation.

* * *

Marisa was stock still. Ran Yakumo knew what she was looking for. Her gaze locked into Marisa's, she declared, "Very well. I will tell you who is the real perpetrator of this scorching summer disappearance."

* * *

_TO BE CONTINUED_

_Ha! I'm so evil! That left you all at the edge of your seats right?_

_Ahem. Well, now that you can't wait for the next chapter… _

_JUST WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER! AAHAHAHAHAHHA! (or in short, ahaha dot wav )_

_Is it the truth dawning on them?_


	19. The One Behind It All

_Hmm, I remembered being extra mean in the end of last chapter. Ah, this chapter is the longest one I've ever written for this story. But before reading this, I'm going to warn you. So far, I think this is the best chapter I've written. Read at your own risk. _

* * *

**Chapter 19: The One Behind It All**

Reimu sped through the air, her mastery over the power of divine celestials and spiritual energy granting her the ability to do so through the power of the yin-yang orbs floating around her. What Eirin told her made her guess who the perpetrators were.

* * *

_"Yesterday afternoon, I was walking through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost when Tewi came and told me of a weird shimmering in the sky. I was intrigued, because I sent her and Reisen for… an errand. She led me to the place, and…" at this Eirin paused._

"_It appeared that it was no longer just a shimmering. A gap. A hole opened in the sky, and it was absorbing all the warmth in the surroundings. Mind you, it was afternoon. As sudden as it appeared, a cold wave spread. Everything around froze, the moist ground, the bamboo, the flowers, the leaves, the insects, so much that Tewi putting her arms around a bamboo plant got her cheek stuck from the freezing. Stuck rabbits aside, it continued, getting worse and worse, the cold increasing and the effect spreading, up until midnight._

"_Beyond intrigued, I marked the place, and returned there some time later. I tried to fly and pass through the hole, but it appeared that I couldn't. The rules of Gensokyo did not allow me to enter."_

"_It's a portal to Meikai?" Reimu asked._

_Eirin gave a nod. "The Netherworld is a place that will not accept us who have cheated death and became immortal through outsmarting the circle of nature. And my guess were confirmed when after an hour of observation, a ghost emerged. I think we're all familiar of the winter incident, when spring did not come for months."_

"_Yuyuko and Yukari," Reimu muttered._

"_Exactly," Eirin confirmed. "They got guts to try inciting the same incident twice. Either that or they're very stupid. If only I was not forbidden to enter, I would've gone and made them pay myself."_

"_Heh," Remilia stood. "Reimu, it's all up to you. I'm going to check on Flandre. But just in case you failed, hopelessly defeated, come to my mansion and cry out, 'Remilia-sama, I'm too weak, help me!'"_

"_LIKE HECK I'M GOING TO SAY THAT!"_

"_And you'll be my maid for a week, bye!" Remilia shot into the air like an arrow and disappeared, just as the horizon turned a lighter hue._

* * *

Reimu continued making her way across the forest, passing by rows and rows of bamboo, each section of the forest looking the same as the next. That was how people could so easily get themselves lost in there just like the name implied. Some even died from it.

From what Remilia said, Marisa should still be having some fun with Flandre. Well, either both of them, or Flandre alone was enjoying it. Reimu wondered if Marisa would be alright. But then, this would just be the perfect chance for her to shine. Her good friend was often her greatest rival when it came to solving incidents. She even fought Marisa once during the Kaguya incident. If someone saw them exchanging blows of danmaku, no one would've guessed that they were good friends, and would have tea and snacks together once in a while.

But then, rivalry was among the many things that motivated her in the field of solving incidents. That and her responsibility as the heir of Hakurei shrine. And the ever lit hope that if she solved an incident, her name as savior of Gensokyo would be mentioned all around again, and even more visitors would come to her shrine. That last one was usually correct, in a way. Usually it would be youkai who would flock around her shrine celebrating the end of an incident, making humans even more scared of coming there. And youkai rarely donated. Yukari would, although usually it was accompanied by some ulterior motive, or motives, given her craftiness.

Dawn started to show itself, as the horizon was already a light shade of blue, the morning star sparkling above in the direction of the still hiding sun. But even in the dim light of dawn, she could see her destination.

Above ahead, a blot darker than the sky around it could be seen floating, not moving and not affected by the wind, as if it was a part of the sky itself. She remembered the time when Yukari weakened the boundary between Gensokyo and the Netherworld. It was the same exact thing. "Yuyuko and Yukari…" Reimu muttered. "And I thought you've repented, the way you even went on good terms with me…" She sighed. "Well, friend or not, my job is my job. You should've known better what I do best."

_[Start of Background Music: Crystallized Silver – Letty's theme from Perfect Cherry Blossom]_

But then she ran into an ice fairy ambush, with tens of them floating in the air blocking her way. Their color schemes were mostly blue, probably distant relatives of Cirno.

Reimu sighed. Youkai and fairies would never be this hostile unless when she was out to solve incidents. It was still a mystery for her, maybe some hidden rule in Gensokyo that, when you pass through an area with the intention of solving an incident, expect the probability of you being attacked to increase by ten thousand percent. Even youkai and fairies that had nothing to do with the incident, or harmed by the incident will suddenly turn hostile.

_It's a conspiracy!_

Reimu let out a smile. Despite being an annoyance, that fact only made solving incidents more exciting. As long as it was not too tiring.

The fairies showered their ice danmaku.

_Huh, they don't even have training, _Reimu thought, as the attack wasn't even organized. They only came rushing at her haphazardly, although that would sometimes make it harder to predict. But Reimu, being a pro as she was, pwner of thousands of fairies, shot every one of them down without even having to resort to her special skills or bombs.

"Thirty nine," Reimu counted, although usually she wouldn't even bother doing that. "Forty, forty-one, forty-… um, eight?" she said, as she shot down seven all at once with just one barrage. One escaped the violent shots, and released a danmaku at point blank range.

Reimu cocked her head, and the danmaku flew past, grazing her ears and freezing some strands of hair. "That's a miss that you'll regret."

It was the fairy's turn to get blasted at point blank.

Reimu continued with not much trouble, firing danmaku non-stop, so much that even her arm and fingers were straining from the constant effort. "Sixty-seven!"

Her enemies "ow"ed in pain, but Reimu did not feel even a passing sense of pity towards them. _Sorry guys, this is a war, and you're on the wrong side._ Not that her danmaku were usually fatal. But then fairies, being a part of nature, did not actually die. They would soon regenerate in the same shape.

Another crowd of ice fairies zoomed towards her. This time, oddly enough, they looked more organized. In the front row was a line made of ten greater fairies, each one raining ice danmaku with violent intensity. Behind the greater fairies, a line of twenty ice fairies were firing danmaku through gaps between their superiors.

Reimu swerved upwards, and aimed her shots at the fairies, starting from the one at the right side. Then she slowly moved downwards, as shots flowed past her, missing by less than a meter. _Streaming, _Reimu thought. It took quite a few shots to take down a greater fairy. The small fries hiding behind stood no chance. Quite a few chickened out and flew away from their formation, but unfortunately for them, Reimu was not being merciful. Instead, it was the ones running away that she shot first.

With a voice as cold as steel, Reimu told them, "You are exterminated."

Four more greater fairies remaining, she tried to maneuver behind them, trying to look for their weak spots and scatter their formation. As she expected, the lesser ones panicked and started to leave their positions.

_Mercy won't do me any good here, _Reimu thought. _This is a war. The more enemies you take down, the greater the credit. The higher your score. It's not like mercy will give me anything, only a bad reputation for letting fairies escape my shots. A flaw in my extermination capability._

There were three more remaining, but yet another line of greater fairies appeared, arranged in the same manner. And another. "Geez, can't you guys be more creative? The same pattern will bore me!"

"We're just following the script!" One of the greater fairies replied in a chirpy voice.

"Oh yeah? In the script, small fries shouldn't talk!" Reimu talked back.

"Yeah, you're right," the talkative fairy replied. "Hey! We're not small fr-,"

But one of her companions nudged her in the side, "Stop deviating from the script! All of us have started firing except you!"

Reimu swooped upwards, flying into the open space between the two lines of fairies. Just as they released their danmaku, she zoomed upwards, and each line's danmaku hit the other line.

"Ouch, I forgot that allies' danmaku can't hurt allies," Reimu muttered. "I wonder who created that rule? It limits creativity." But then a familiar enemy appeared. "YOU? At least wait for the other fairies to pass first!"

"Whats? Eye didn't know it's yoo!" a very surprised Cirno spluttered.

"Scram! Shoo!" Reimu threatened. Having Cirno appear while she was preoccupied with the other fairies would've put her at a disadvantage. Bosses and midbosses shouldn't fight while their minions were still littering the field.

"I'm just following the script!" Cirno whined. "Frost Sign – Frost Column!"

A scattered but heavy barrage of ice danmaku littered the scene. Reimu, ever prepared, looked for small spaces that she can slip through. But the other greater fairies interfered, making the shot patterns more complicated. _I've fought worse, _she thought. "You want your second Fantasy Orb?"

"No! I got once! Once is enough!" Cirno protested.

"You're right. Actually I don't want to waste a bomb on a weak midboss like you."

"Yeah," Cirno agreed. "Hey! I'm Cirno, the strong-," and Reimu shot her midsentence in the two seconds she got distracted talking.

"On second thought, I take that back. I want some bonus, so, Fantasy Orb!" A huge orb of spiritual energy blasted its way to Cirno, swallowing five greater fairies, eight lesser ones, hundreds of danmaku, and little Miss Nineball.

"Ow…" Cirno moaned as she fell down through the air like a shot down plane, trailing molten ice instead of smoke.

The remaining fairies dispersed and disappeared into the forest.

"Oh, my, and I even told them how to fight," a floating girl spoke, flying out of the forest. "Fairies are fairies after all."

The air around her seemed to swirl just from her aura, like a miniature hailstorm. She had lavender eyes and curly lavender hair. Her dress was the white of snow combined with the dark blue of a winter dawn, with a golden lapel resembling the alchemical symbol for silver. Her cape was nearly transparent, like a sheet of thin ice. On her head was a white cap like a lump of fluffy snow.

"You're the mastermind! You made the script!" Reimu pointed an accusing finger.

"Script? Me? I don't know, maybe it's something they made up by themselves. Them and their silly games. I only told them how to arrange themselves when fighting the intruder who wanted to end our winter!" Letty Whiterock the yuki-onna replied. "Ah, it feels so good to be awake! Nine months of sleep is as boring as heck, you know."

"Well, I already guessed it's not you starting winter," Reimu told her.

"No, but whoever it is, I'm thankful. I envy humans like you if you can play all year long," Letty continued her chat. "Cirno'll miss me every time I had to go back to sleep every spring."

"Then don't sleep," Reimu suggested harshly.

"Wha-? I can't help it! As soon as it turns warm, I get all sleepy. Human, what if you don't sleep for three nights, won't you feel the same?"

"Oh, so you're a natural sleepyhead," Reimu teased. "When you sleep, did you drool ice?"

"What! Humph, among all conversations I had before a danmaku battle, this one is the worst!" Letty crossed her arms in annoyance.

"Well, who made the script for this one?"

"…" and she started the battle. "Cold Sign – Lingering Cold!"

It was a barrage of blue ice balls aimed towards Reimu's general direction. One of them was bigger and faster than the rest. Reimu shifted aside one step to avoid that one, while patiently slipping through a gap between the lines of fire, um, I mean, ice. The essence of danmaku fighting was patience, focus and not to stop firing. Her shots however, caught Letty quite a few times, as the youkai was busy focusing on her spell card.

And the spell disintegrated, the bullets disappearing. But Letty quickly produced another. "Mystic Sign – Table Turning!"

A violent onslaught of icicles exploded out in all directions, accompanied by swirling ice streams. Reimu knows that this spell card will require more focus than the last one, as most of the shots were not aimed towards her but rather scattered across the field to make her slipping through them even harder, and could sometimes depend on luck.

A combination of skill and luck, and Letty was injured enough by Reimu's shots to lose focus on her spell card. The onslaught disappeared.

"Ah well, I guess it can't be helped," she said. "I knew that this unnatural winter won't last. Mind you, just seeing you had made me sleepy."

"Um, enjoy your last moments while this winter lasts," Reimu consoled.

"Really?"

"No." And she shot Letty down. After hearing the dull thud, she muttered, "You are exterminated. Uh, that line doesn't sound right, for a reason. I wonder why."

_[End of Background Music: Crystallized Silver – Letty's theme from Perfect Cherry Blossom]_

Now, with no one stopping her, Reimu sped towards the gaping hole. To her curiosity, every few seconds, a small white mass emerged out of the opening.

_Ghosts are escaping Meikai?_

But right when she came close, she could feel that this was what she was looking for. A warm air current could be felt seeping through it, faintly but noticeable. "Yukari," Reimu muttered under her breath.

Not having a moment to lose, she passed through the weakened barrier.

The first thing to strike her was that the Netherworld was much, much hotter than she remembered. It made her felt like being put in a sauna.

_Wh-what's wrong with this place?_

She headed towards the familiar majestic steps leading up to Hakugyokurou, the mansion where the ghost princess Yuyuko Saigyouji lived with her half-ghost servant Youmu.

She started walking up. The heat was tremendous and oppressive, making every second an uncomfortable one. At first it was a welcome change from the winter, but after the first minute, it had started to become a torture.

_No wonder ghosts are escaping the Netherworld, _Reimu thought to herself.

The higher she went, the hotter it got. She started to feel thirsty and wished for the cold of winter again. Despite the Netherworld being mostly dark and dim, the heat was worse than the afternoon sun. The darkness made the sensation of overheating all the more oppressive, like being cooked alive in a dark, closed container.

She started to wonder if Yuyuko was really the one behind this all. No one in their right minds would've wanted to make their home a twenty-four hour sauna.

Another disturbing fact was that there was no Youmu to stop her, or at least, greet her. The last time she went here, the half-ghost was quick to come and stop the intruder by unsheathing her katana. Usually, the absence of the guard was not a good sign. Even the ghosts weren't attacking. Most of them just flew past her, looking for a way to escape the hell.

She went further up. Sweat was drenching her forehead, and every step she took, drops of it would fall on the stone steps.

Getting fed up of walking, she flew upwards. But the heat tormented her the same. The scorching wind running against her, it was like standing in front of a giant hairdryer. Just three seconds of flying had made her eyes teary.

"Ow…" she moaned, as she rubbed her eyes from the pain. She resumed walking. "Youmu?" she called out. "Yuyuko?" And remembering the hole connecting Gensokyo and the Netherworld, she cried out, "Yukari!"

Silence. Everything was silent. One or two ghosts flew past her like small fluffy clouds. A sudden idea crossed her mind. With the speed of a striking cobra, she caught one of the ghosts.

_Ah, so cool… this is bliss, _she thought, hugging the ghost like a pillow. _Too bad I can't drink it. I'm all thirsty right now. _And the ghost was probably thinking 'Let me go! Don't eat me!' but Reimu didn't care.

Feeling much better, she continued her way upwards, still holding on to her cooling companion like a wet towel.

"Youmu?" she asked the heavy silence. "Yuyuko? Yukari!"

Still no answer. She was really starting to worry. Something was not right. It was too obvious. She soon reached the top of the flight of stairs, thinking, _I should've brought Cirno with me._

At last, reaching the garden of Hakugyokurou, in front of her was a stone path leading to the majestic cherry tree, Saigyou Ayakashi. The leafless tree was many times bigger than any living tree in Gensokyo. Any other tree would look like models, dwarfed by its daunting size. It was this tree that Yuyuko tried to make bloom by absorbing the essence of spring from all Gensokyou, stealing spring and thus causing a long winter.

But the culprit this time was not Yuyuko Saigyouji.

In front of the tree, a lady with blue eyes and green hair that was longer on the left side stood with her back facing Reimu. Her dress was dark blue, with a white long-sleeved shirt inside and a black skirt. Her hat was shaped like an ornate oriental crown, colored blue and white with a gold emblem in front and a red and white bow on the back that were balanced equally. Her feet ended in a pair of socks and black shoes.

"Impossible! It can't be! WHY? It's… YOU!" Reimu spluttered in surprise and disbelief.

Shikieiki Yamaxanadu turned round to face her. Her expression was calm, yet at the same time, blank. Reimu was right to be surprised. The Yama who judged the souls of people whether they're going to Hell, Heaven, the Netherworld, or being reincarnated were known for being a very strict judge in judging between Good and Evil, and was the epitome of justice itself. In a way, she _was_ Justice. Needless to say, in the whole history of Gensokyo, she had never been a villain. Yet there she was, standing as the one causing the incident.

"Yes. It is me."

* * *

_Now, did anyone guess correctly? But… Why would of all people, her? What motives could it be? Was that really the Shikieiki that we know? Or thought we knew? Was that really her?_

_Thumbs up if you noticed the many instances the fourth wall were broken, or poked at. I really enjoyed myself writing this chapter, especially the last surprising bit. I think I had the most fun yet writing this one._

_Ah, now that the Yama is out of the bag, I think I can rest a bit. Sorry, but I got some real-world things to catch up to. So expect a one or two day hiatus. Don't worry, I'll be back after a day or two. It's a promise._

_And while I'm at it, please don't mention the culprit's name in the comments. Just write ******** or something in place of the name, so as to not spoil it to other readers._

_But then, is she really the culprit?_

_These questions will be answered in the next chapters._


	20. Before The Incident

_Did I say I was going to put a hiatus? Let's say that I actually wrote beyond my schedule, and despite the fact that I didn't have time to complete a chapter yesterday, I'll post forward this just to stay according to schedule._

_At the brink of exhaustion… gasp, wheeze… here is it, people, the 20th chapter… _

* * *

**Chapter 20: Before the Incident**

_The Morning the Day before The Incident_

"Komachi," Shikieiki appeared at the bank of the Sanzu river. It was the great river where the dead souls were ferried across by the shinigami Komachi Onozuka.

Komachi turned to face her master. She had red eyes, short pinkish red hair with two ponytails tied by two double haired beads. Her dress was white and frilly, with a blue vest and skirt worn over it. Appearance could be deceiving. Despite her girly and doll-like appearance, she was a shinigami. The scythe she carried was one proof of that. It was of a bendy and wispy type, but still a scythe nonetheless. Those who underestimated her fighting prowess usually ended up being her entertainment.

Usually her job would be ferrying dead souls across, but today there weren't too many of them. For her it was weird. But right now, seeing her master, the Yama Shikieiki up here was sheer alarming.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll get back to work!' she pleaded, picking up her scythe. Her master caught her daydreaming again. The shinigami's tendency to laze and fool around instead of doing her job ferrying souls were something of a common knowledge in Gensokyo. She would then attribute it to the monotonous nature of her job and the fact that she had been doing the same thing since centuries ago.

"Well, fortunately I'm up here for an entirely different business," Shikieiki replied with a wry smile.

"More work for me?" a startled Komachi inquired.

"That question is hardly appropriate," Shikieiki rebuked. "At best, it would've been an offer to receive and do more work, but I can see that that is not the case. You want to laze about and spend your time in a carefree way, so it's either you're being dishonest, trying to hide your contempt at your workload, or you're thinking of receiving the orders and yet you'll still laze and spend your time without any care for the world. Even if you were honest, I doubt that was a wise request. Some more workload will only make the pile of your unfinished tasks higher."

Komachi drooped like a dry mushroom, sighing. If she was notorious for her lazing about, then her master's fame in giving out longwinded lectures was legendary.

"Straighten up your back! Maintain a sharp posture! Keep a positive attitude to your duty! Even humans in the outside world had learnt the importance of keeping a positive attitude when it comes to working, no matter what work it is."

"Yes, Eiki-sama," Komachi received the earful lecture meekly.

"Well, never mind," Shikieiki dismissed the rebukes, fumbling with the runed Rod of Remorse in her hand, shaped like an elongated stone tablet with a pointed end. The artifact was said to weigh as much as a person's sins. She gave a small indiscernible smile. "I'm giving you a day off from this duty."

"Am I hearing right, Eiki-sama? _One day off?"_ she exclaimed excitedly.

"I said one day off, one only. From this duty, this duty," Shikieiki repeated. "It'll be a long day. I'm sending you on an errand. I know you enjoy fighting once in a while. It's what you often do when slacking around."

"Really?" Komachi replied excitedly. "Uh, on that thing, about slacking around…"

"Ahem," Shikieiki cleared her throat. "I want you to check on Hakugyokurou. Are Yuyuko Saigyouji and Youmu Konpaku there? What are they doing? Also while you're at it, notice the weather in Gensokyo. Mortals countless are complaining of the unnatural heat of the summer. Then come back to me."

"You said I'll be fighting?" the excitement was still apparent in her voice.

Shikieiki only stared.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Komachi bowed profusely.

"Such eagerness to unleash violence and humiliate."

"But I'm a shinigami! A being of death and the afterlife!"

"No one said that death must be cruel and rough," Shikieiki explained with a serene expression. But it also showed a strict will, one that will not hesitate to condemn a soul for a million years of punishment if the soul was found guilty. "Often death carries a deep meaning, not sheer mindless destruction. Those who twist the meaning behind the existence of death with their brand of chaos and madness were the ones putting a smear on the pristine circle of life and death."

"Yes master."

"What I meant by a fight was, Youmu Konpaku may show hostility towards you as an intruder. Be prepared in case you are forced to fight. The young half-ghost is a deadly swordsperson. A defeated shinigami will only be a disgrace."

"Understood, master," Komachi gave a nod.

"And while I'm at it…" Shikieiki made an awkward smile. "Can you step back a bit? I'm uneasy with the way you're standing too close."

Komachi had to stop herself from laughing, then she coughed to save herself. Her master was being extra conscious of the height difference between them. And she wouldn't say it, not in a thousand years, but she suspected her master of being jealous of her… much more feminine figure.

"What are you waiting for? I said go, go and go!" Shikieiki scolded.

"Wah, okay, I'm sorry!" Komachi said, running away and disappearing like a shadow.

* * *

_Hakugyokurou_

Yukari and Yuyuko were having a chat over cups of tea and a plate of chocolate-filled biscuits.

"Well, I'm coming to tell you of something," Yukari mentioned. "Someone is heading to Hakugyokurou. And from the looks of that person's expression, I can read hints of bad intentions."

"Who is it?" And when Yukari told Yuyuko who that person was, she couldn't believe it.

"Komachi? That shinigami?" Yuyuko asked. "Why would she come here? It's not like she's taking my soul, is it? Or any of us here in Meikai? The Netherworld is a place for the dead!"

"Beats me either," Yukari gave a shrug. Then she poured some more tea into her cup. Yuyuko noticed that she never saw the youkai take a sip since she was here, and yet the cup was empty right now. "Oh, you noticed? I created a small gap at the bottom of the cup which led directly into my throat. A neat trick, isn't it?"

"I've heard of ghosts drinking and having water spout out of holes in their bodies, between their ribcages," Yuyuko answered with a shrug.

"That isn't you right?"

"Why Yukari, that's so mean!" Yuyuko protested. "I'm not a rotten ghost! I'm pretty much whole and intact. But back to what you were saying, you saw Komachi heading here looking like she had bad intentions?"

"Well, let her come! She looked like she's having some mischief in mind. It's all written in the way she grinned and carried her scythe. Maybe she thought of hiding in Meikai to slack around without Eiki-sama finding her," Yukari dismissed.

"Hmm," Yuyuko thought for a second. "Well, let's invite her to have some tea and biscuits then! I always wanted to hear stories from the land of the dead."

"Well, you _are_ in the land of the dead," Yukari pointed out with a grin.

"Ufufu, thank you for reminding," Yuyuko replied gracefully. "Is a ghost dead or living?"

"A living dead," Yukari replied with a shrug.

"Ah, a paradox," Yuyuko agreed with a carefree smile. "How about a shinigami? Is a death god living?" she motioned towards the newcomer approaching them.

"Hi," Komachi approached the pair. "Mind if I intrude?"

"Yes, as long as you don't cross the line between being a guest and an intruder. There is a border between that, you know," Yukari explained friendlily with a relish.

"Ufufu… don't get her started with talk about borders," Yuyuko pointed out. "Yukari, one more cup for our deathly guest here?"

"Ahaha," Komachi let out a small laugh.

"What?" Yuyuko asked.

"Me? Deathly? Says the ghost whose corpse lay under a cherry tree."

Yukari chuckled at Komachi's gentle ridicule. "Here," Yukari passed a cup of steaming tea to the shinigami. "Any stories from the Sanzu River?"

"Well, lots of them," Komachi replied, taking a sip. Her journey didn't feel very far, because she had the ability to manipulate distance, yet she was eager for a drink after the long walk. "Each soul has its own story. I can't get myself to remember all of course. There was a soul regretting trampling a sunflower field."

"Ahaha, that unlucky soul, I assumed it was Yuuka who sent it there?" Yukari guessed. Yuuka was a youkai with the ability of manipulating flowers and had a tendency towards violence, especially when someone was ruining her field of sunflowers. Her very high destructive ability was said to be able to take down an entire spaceship.

They chatted for quite a while, when suddenly Komachi remembered the real reason she came here. "Um, really, thanks for the biscuits, they're really good. But, actually, I'm looking for Youmu. Is she here?"

"She went to the restroom just now," Yuyuko told her.

"Uh, for this long?" Yukari asked. "I think she already went out to get groceries."

"Ah yes, I forgot," Yuyuko replied.

"She's not here?"

After Yukari and Yuyuko gave identical nods, a disappointed Komachi headed back to the Sanzu river. Having the chance to pick up a fight with the legendary swordsperson was what made her so excited when she came, but somehow, those tea and biscuits made her forgot. To her wonder, her master the Yama was still waiting there. "You sure took your time. Did you get into a fight and win, given your unscathed state?"

"Uh, I-I, um, no," Komachi answered truthfully, knowing better than to lie. "Yuyuko and Yukari were there, but no Youmu. They invited me to have some tea. Youmu was out getting groceries. And it seemed that Gensokyou is hotter than is usual. The sun's beating down fiercely, people are complaining."

"Ah, Yukari is there too? Then that will make my work easier. And Youmu'll probably return, so there's no problem with that," Shikieiki said to herself. "But I'll have to teach you a few lessons later for slacking off again even when given a direct order such as that. I can't afford to lose precious time."

"What are you planning, Eiki-sama?"

"Come with me. We are attacking Hakugyokurou."

"WHAT?" There was really something odd about being ordered to attack someone whom she just had tea with a few minutes ago. And chocolate-filled biscuits.

* * *

_Is that Yama out of her mind? She's the epitome of justice! Well, supposed to be. Why would she do something like that?_

_Teaser: An assault on the tower of white jade._


	21. Conviction

_Wheeeeeeeze… Pant… Gasp… Why am I being so very tired! Oh, maybe the fact that I made a deal with the devil (sort of) to trade my sanity with the ability to post a new chapter every day, powered by a sadistic bout of OCD?_

* * *

**Chapter 21: Conviction**

_Noon before the Incident - Hakugyokurou_

"Where's Ran?" Yuyuko asked.

"I sent her on an errand," Yukari replied calmly.

"And Chen?"

"With Ran."

"Oh, I see," Yuyuko answered, looking thoughtful.

"Are you thinking of something?" Yukari asked.

"Why, yes! Today's lunch, I wonder what it is!"

"Ahaha," Yukari chuckled. "I was wondering if it was something else."

"Youmu had been gone for quite a while," Yuyuko mused. "I wonder why she's late."

_[Start of Background Music: Komachi's Theme – Higan Retour – Riverside View]_

"Ah, there's Komachi again, that child," Yukari said with a chuckle. Appearing on the top of the steps, Komachi headed towards the oriental mansion of Hakugyokurou, where Yukari and Yuyuko were sitting on the verandah, enjoying the sight of the garden.

But Komachi wore an unusual expression. It was like a puzzled mix of emotions. Excited, and yet guilty and puzzled at the same time.

"Ah, well, she must have something important to tell Youmu, but I wonder when that gardener will be back," Yuyuko mused. "I can't wait for lunch."

But then Shikieiki Yamaxanadu appeared at Komachi's side.

"What?" Yukari and Yuyuko blurted. With just one step, Shikieiki appeared in front of the Youkai of Boundaries.

"Eiki-sama, what's the meaning of this?" Yukari asked sweetly. "You really surprised us, here, we're having tea, care for some?"

But Shikieiki only stood, an imposing figure in terms of the power and authority she carried as an immortal judge. "I, Shikieki Yamaxanadu, Highest Judge of Paradise, am declaring an order for your arrest, Yukari Yakumo and Yuyuko Saigyouji."

"Why, and why? We're not doing anything wrong this time," Yuyuko defended, crossing her arms.

"Yuyuko Saigyouji. Attempt at resisting arrest, confirmed," Shikieiki declared. Komachi appeared in front of the three, raising up her scythe.

An explosion of energy not of this world, and Yuyuko flew up the roof. "Oh my, oh my, I was just thinking of picking the right spell card," Yuyuko said dismissively. When she crossed her arms just now, Shikieiki had seen her hand reaching for it.

Komachi burst out of the cloud of dust and rubble and lifted her scythe for yet another attack.

"Ah, let's have fun, then," Yuyuko said, giving in. "Losing Hometown – 'Lost Soul's Village Suicide!'"

A double river made of streams of colorful triangular magical danmaku flew towards Komachi, surrounding her from both sides, while raising her fan, Yuyuko moved it in a sweeping arc, releasing five lines of a ghostly purple laser, scorching everything it touched with its destructive amount of energy.

"Tip of Death!" Komachi released her attack. A straight stream of coins shot out from her scythe. Despite the fact that they were coins, they weren't just coins. They were danmaku, and a hit from one of them would be as injurious as a bullet.

Yuyuko made midair maneuvers to avoid the stream. Each of the coins was individually aimed, making it a must for her to outmaneuver them as they went through the air like guided missiles. "I wonder if Reimu could resist seeing coins being thrown away like that!"

Miles away, Reimu sneezed. _I wonder, but suddenly I'm feeling that I'm really sad for this shrine's financial state._

Meanwhile, Komachi did not stop firing as she dodged the hundreds of magical danmaku Yuyuko scattered, sometimes using her scythe to block them.

"Not bad, not bad!" Yuyuko exclaimed, while she made a chopping movement across the air with her fan, as the quintuple lasers radiating out of it descended on Komachi like quintuple guillotines. A cloud of Netherworld dust rose to the air.

Komachi slid aside just in time, but she could smell burning hair and fabric. The tip of her dress and ponytails were burnt by the blast. Then she shot up to avoid the arrowhead shaped danmaku approaching.

As the dust cleared, Komachi saw that below, the savage chop had left a deep cut mark on the earth.

"My, lucky you avoided that," Yuyuko whispered from behind her, "but not this!"

Another barrage of danmaku. Another deadly chop. Another explosion bringing dust up into the air.

Komachi was lucky the second time. With the enemy so close, she had moved to the closest safe spot available. Behind the enemy. One of the danmaku hitting her left upper arm, she gasped in pain, but somehow survived going behind Yuyuko. Yuyuko, noticing the moment Komachi passed by her, narrowly avoiding a scythe in the face, turned around.

"Ties with the Deceased!" A large number of coins appeared in a closely packed arrangement, unfolding outward in a spiral pattern.

"Ara! That will be hard to dodge!" Yuyuko retreated at a speed unfitting for her ghostly nature, just before she released another salvo and sliced through the air diagonally. Then she shifted left and right, avoiding more and more of Komachi's guided coins. "Wait, where is that shinigami?" From below, coins shot out from the garden, appearing from amidst leaves and treetops. "Why you little brat!" Yuyuko chuckled, a creepy smile forming on her face just as she covered it with a fan. "You want me to destroy my garden!" she said, dodging the coins again and again. "Youmu will be so mad for this."

Meanwhile, Shikieiki found herself being surrounded by holes midair all aimed towards her. She snorted, just as Yukari's voice declared, "Bounded Field - Mesh of Light and Darkness!" Countless crisscrossing lasers burst out of the openings, but Shikieiki was faster. A second before she shot to the air, avoiding the intense barrage, she released a spell of her own.

"Charge of Virtue!" Large and heavy blue projectiles shot out from both sides of her, each one as tall as she was. She shot them into one of the gaps. Then she took shelter behind another as lasers exploded in all directions, her shelter like a rock during an avalanche. But the fact that light travelled in straight lines made the spot the best for that situation. And she had another thing in mind. Just as the lasers shrunk and dispersed, she gripped the edge of a gap, and with dexterity one would not expect of a judge, she swung through it before it closed, appearing in front of a surprised Yukari.

Yukari, who had just dodged Shikieiki's projectiles coming out from her gap, did not expect Shikieiki herself to emerge from the hole that she called her own. But she was not surprised. "Evil Spirits - Xanadu of Straight and Curve!" Yukari released her spell card, but to her amazement, she felt something grip her wrist, and raised it to see a rope wound around it. "This is –, " she exclaimed, her surprise apparent as she recognized the rope binding itself around her hand. The right side of her materializing spell suddenly disintegrated, while on the left side, crystals shot out, and bubbles of energy curving through the air burst out. And Shikieiki was on the right side, raising her Rod of Remorse.

Yukari's eyes widened as it descended on her with bone-crushing force, crushing her parasol and landing a very painful hit on her shoulder, but as she fell through the air, that did not stop her from summoning a gap that swallowed her from behind, as she appeared miles away from the scene, struggling to take off the rope around her wrist. Her spell had disintegrated the moment she was hit, but she didn't care.

"Komachi!" Shikieiki called. "Komachi Onozuka!"

Above the garden, Yuyuko swooped downwards, eager to pinpoint and shoot her hiding enemy. Seeing Komachi under the shade of a tree, she released a wave of danmaku in all directions. Not strong enough to bring down trees, but potent enough to break twigs and leaves and injure enemies. Komachi took shelter behind a tree trunk, but Yuyuko had seen her and appeared on her left just as the shinigami took a glance to the right to see if Yuyuko was approaching.

A cold hand touched her shoulder. "Waah!" Komachi screamed, more from surprise than from fear, just as she swung her scythe upwards, foiling Yuyuko's attempt to release her danmaku from point-blank.

"Ufufu, Youmu would've given a better reaction than that," Yuyuko muttered. But then she had to jump backwards to avoid a scythe swipe, the scythe embedding itself on a tree trunk instead. As Komachi struggled trying to pull it out, Yuyuko giggled. "That's why I don't prefer fighting with weapons." She raised her fan again.

But then Komachi heard her master calling. She let go of her scythe, just as a series of lasers split the tree in two, her scythe thrown by the explosive force of the impact. Moving through the air at a burst of speed, she dodged Yuyuko's danmaku, most of them barely, and caught her spinning scythe midair. On a fifty-fifty chance, she was lucky to catch the handle and not the blade. One danmaku caught her foot, sending her spinning in pain.

"Komachi Onozuka!"

"Yes!" her eyes teary from the pain while using her distance manipulating power, she reached her master with just one step. "Sorry, I was preoccupied."

"Send me to Yukari before she leaves this place," Shikieki commanded, "and Komachi, while I attack her from the front…"

While she was far away from her pursuer, Yukari used all her efforts in trying to unwind the rope around her right wrist. Just as she managed to take off the rope and thought of resuming the battle, at least by saving her friend Yuyuko and bringing her out of Meikai, Shikieiki appeared in front of her.

"Ah, I always know that I'm no match for-," but Shikieiki did not even bother listening. Yukari suddenly felt someone pulling her arm and turned around to see Komachi holding a rope with the obvious intention of tying her hands. But just as Yukari yanked her hand free, shooting down Komachi with a spur-of-the-moment danmaku firing, Shikieiki's Rod of Remorse descended on her with devastating force, and the Youkai of Boundaries fell through the air like a shot bird. Even then Shikieiki did not give her a chance. She zoomed towards Yukari, and followed her first blow with another, this time on the head.

Seeing stars with her head filled with white-hot pain, Yukari could not muster the concentration needed to summon a gap that will bring her to safety. Landing on the dark, dusty ground, her head pounding like mad, she could hear Shikieiki's voice stating,

"The thing hurting you right now is the weight of your sins."

Then she felt hands behind her, tying a rope round her wrists.

_Not again! I know these ropes! _Yukari thought.

"This is Shimenawa, a rope that is used to bind impure beings," Shikieiki explained. "It can even bind deities, so don't even think about using your powers. They're now completely useless. Be glad that I'm not bringing the shackles of Hell itself."

* * *

_So Shikieiki did the sensible thing: take down Yukari first. Yuyuko?_


	22. Posthumous Conviction

_Cracked pillar of justice anyone?_

_Here comes the next chapter. I hope I put sufficient effort in planning the scenes. Pay attention to every second of the battle. I really, really hope it's my best yet. _

* * *

**Chapter 22: Posthumous Conviction**

"I wonder, where is that girl?" Yuyuko muttered to herself, searching through her garden for Komachi. "I wonder how Yukari's doing against that lecturing Yama."

"I am here," Shikieiki spoke, standing in front of her.

"Ufufu, Yukari got away, did she?" Yuyuko asked.

"Lie – Tongue of Wolf," it was Shikieiki's turn to release a spell card. Rows and rows of white hot balls of danmaku arranged in wobbly lines that were nearly impossible to slip between at close quarters appeared, radiating from her with frightening intensity.

"Ha! So this is the power of a Yama!" Komachi cheered up. "Scary," she whispered as an afterthought.

"Close, close!" Yuyuko replied cheerfully, slipping between the lines of fire, then she produced a spell card of her own. "Subtle Melody – Repository of Hiraka-," but her line was cut short as something caught her eye, causing her to be distracted for a second.

"Yuyuko-sama!" Youmu came rushing up the steps to Hakugyokurou, pushing her cart hurriedly. "What-," she was just about to ask, when she saw her master being impaled by a pillar of light.

_Curse it all… _the ghost thought, falling through the air like a limp doll. _I was distracted by the sight of food. I let hunger be my weakness. Is that to be blamed?_

"YUYUKO-SAMA!"

Shikieiki was not being merciful. "Judgement – Last Judgement!" She followed the huge laser with a few more, the blasts fired in a consecutive series, not leaving anything to chance. No living thing could survive being hit by that total amount of deity-level blasts without being pulverized or for even the strongest of them, seriously injured. "Yukari Yakumo and Yuyuko Saigyouji: Guilty."

_[Start of Background Music: Youmu's theme – Hiroari Shoots A Strange Bird]_

"Yuyuko… sama," Youmu was beyond shocked, her legs trembling. She collapsed onto her knees, tears welling in her eyes.

"Ah, hello there, I was looking for you," Komachi appeared in front of her. "Can you put that cart away? I don't want to destroy good food."

Youmu wordlessly unsheathed her sword, her head bowed and her expression dark. She swung it at the shinigami, and it clashed with Komachi's scythe. She made a sweeping blow under hip level.

Clang. Her sword clashed against a scythe handle, as Komachi used her scythe to provide the thrust needed for her to leap to the air, then while still in midair, she raised her scythe and brought it down with dreadful speed and force, just as a rain of golden danmaku launched from all around her. "Old Rain - Rain in the Afterworld Journey!"

"Hungry King Sword - Ten Kings' Retribution on the Gaki!" Youmu responded, fiercely shouting out the name of her spell card.

A blinding spinning flurry of white ghostly danmaku made of screaming souls burst out. But the fact that she was concentrating so much on her own spell card made her vulnerable to Komachi's own. And the fact that at the same time, Komachi wasn't expecting Youmu's respond brought the exchange to…

The resulting explosion blew a huge cloud of dust into the air. It was a deadlock. Both were injured, hardly able to stand.

"My, you're not really bad yourself," Komachi said teasingly, smiling with trembling lips as she tried to stand the pain of the injury. "But didn't you realize the irony?"

"What?"

Komachi cackled. "No matter how tough you are, or even if you win this fight, you can never change the fact that it was you coming that was the downfall of your mistress!"

"What? What do you mean?" Youmu's eyes widened. Her already pale face turned even paler.

_I think the future said, nee-chan is going to be nee-chan's mistress downfall_, a nagging voice rang in her head.

Komachi sighed, chuckling a bit. "I knew it. They said you're not only a half-ghost, but also half-baked. Didn't you see how your Yuyuko-sama got blasted? Only a second of lowering your guard is fatal if you dare to raise your arm against Eiki-sama. And look who provided that second? Your mistress was distracted by your coming!"

"N… no, I'm…" Youmu's eyes widened even more, her face now a pale waxy shade. _I… I'm a failure for Yuyuko-sama! I failed to protect… I even… I even… _Her eyeballs feeling hot, and tears starting to well, the thoughts sent a wave of guilt through her entire body, making her tremble as the cold plunging realization dropped in the pits of her stomach.

"Aw, don't cry, how can I fight you if you're crying?" Komachi taunted.

Then Youmu's eyes narrowed, the teary orbs now hardened to a dark and lightless blue. "I will not cry. If that's what it takes to cut you DOWN!"

"Ha! That's the spirit!" Komachi exclaimed with glee. _Clang!_ "Gah!" Komachi let out a gasp in surprise. A savage blow from Roukanken, Youmu's katana just clashed against her scythe's handle, jarring her entire body. And it was lucky that her instinctive jerk managed to block the incoming blow, or it would have been the end of the battle for her. "Scary!" Komachi taunted, despite the fact that her face was tense, betraying the tension that she was feeling. "You sure you can win against me? Or Eiki-sama? Just one second of lowering your guard and you're history!" She brought her scythe down over Youmu's head with deadly force.

Clang.

"Im… impossible!" Komachi muttered in disbelief.

"Then I won't give both of you even one second!" Youmu insisted, her lips now a straight line of grim resolve. She had stopped the scythe with the tip of her wakizashi, Hakurouken, the short blade notching itself just between where the scythe's blade met its handle, and with the scythe's tip just centimeters from touching her hair. Then with her other hand, she thrust Roukanken at her adversary, just as Komachi made a backflip over Youmu, the edge of her scythe grazing the back of Youmu's head. But Komachi too did not escape grazing. She was now holding her upper arm in pain, at the spot where Roukanken had cut through the fabric and wounding her. Komachi quickly resumed a fighting stance.

Then she rushed at the half-ghost with her scythe again, bringing it down with one scything movement, only to be blocked by Youmu's Roukanken, but with a grin, she declared her spell card, "Death Song - Ferriage In The Deep Fog!"

But without even expecting Komachi to do the same thing, Youmu exclaimed, "Hell Realm – 200 Yojana in 1 Slash!" right at the same millisecond.

A cloud of blasted dust and glowing explosions of danmaku force. Another deadlock. Youmu and Komachi both retreated out of the cloud staggering, their dresses smoking, and both trying their best not to give in to the pain. They both panted, breathing hard.

"You… you really are something, aren't you?" Komachi asked between gasps of breath. She then fell on her knees, her scythe under her palm on the ground.

Youmu stood with her legs apart, standing in a holding off stance. "With what you've done, I'll let you get away with it, _after I chop off your head!"_ she rushed at the shinigami.

"Heh, that just won't do," Komachi sneered, picking up her scythe and leaping to the air, aiming for Youmu's head. The move puzzled Youmu as at least ten meters still separated her and Komachi. But then, it was as if the shinigami teleported to her, appearing right over her. Youmu reacted barely in time, blocking off the heavy blow with both of her swords, but again, the tip of the scythe nicked her, this time on the arm holding Hakurouken, as Komachi spun midair, and ten metres separated them again.

"H… how?" Youmu asked, puzzled, pressing the hand holding Roukanken on the wound.

"Distances mean nothing to me!" Komachi exclaimed with fierce satisfaction, just as she appeared right in front of Youmu, the half-ghost girl still clutching the wound, only to be taken by surprise when Youmu kicked the handle of her scythe, sending her retreating. But grinning maliciously, Komachi repeatedly assaulted the swordwarrior by manipulating the distance separating them. Ten metres separating them. Clang. A millisecond later she was already on Youmu's left, sending a savage swipe, but just when Youmu retaliated, Komachi was already ten metres away. "Ha!" Komachi gave a triumphant exclaimation just as she gave Youmu a savage kick on the left side while the girl was trying to block her scythe which came from the right. "That was for last time."

Youmu was staggering, but Komachi continued her distance-manipulating assault, each strike bringing the vicious sound of clashing steel, striking her from left, right, front, front, right, right, left, front, left, with only Youmu's lightning reflexes saving herself.

"Hell Realm Sword – 200 Yojana in One Slash!" Youmu exclaimed, swiping with her sword as countless ghostly spirit danmaku burst forth from it, each of the orbs larger than herself, while the flash of her sword trailed a fiery flash of red danmaku explosions, all aimed towards her enemy. Komachi, taken by surprise, reacted a little too late. She already warped the distance, making the distance between them just within reach of her scythe. Panicking, the danmaku all compressed as space was shortened, she extended the distance between them as fast as she could, but that didn't stop herself from being grazed by Youmu's danmaku. One even caught her squarely on the chest, throwing her a few miles away, as she extended the distance, wincing in pain. But she was still not giving in to defeat. Landing on her feet, she could still muster enough concentration to avoid the rest of Youmu's danmaku. But she couldn't pretend that the danmaku hitting her did not injure her a lot.

"Tricks are disgraceful when used against a swordsperson," Youmu told her, as Komachi reduced the distance between them into hearing distance again.

"But…" Komachi contradicted, with one step, she was in front of Youmu, clashing her scythe against both of her swords, then with another, she was already far away to Youmu's right, and with another, she was already behind her, so close that she could bring down her scythe on the girl's head. "Your back is wide open!"

Then Youmu made a move that surprised even herself. She sidestepped the blow and stepped on the scythe's blade, rasing Roukanken over her shoulder, "You can't get any further now, Komachi," Youmu declared with a steely expression, making a diagonal slash as the shinigami's eyes widened. But Komachi, with frightening strength, lifted her scythe with Youmu on it, making Youmu's slash waver, turning not as fatal as she intended, just nicking Komachi's arm, while the scythe blade, cutting through the half-ghost's shoe, tasted blood again.

Youmu landed on her arms, doing a backflip to land on her feet, the bleeding wound making her let out a gasp in pain, and wince with every step on the injured foot. Luckily it wasn't too deep as to make standing impossible.

"You're… really not bad, you know?" Komachi said, her voice sounding friendly, but her expression was one twisted by pain and battle excitement.

"If it wasn't for your tricks, I would've defeated you a long time ago," Youmu answered scathingly. She tried not to put too much pressure on the injured foot.

"Ahaha, such impudence! Appreciate the fact that a shinigami is complimenting you!"

"A weak enemy does not deserve to give compliments," Youmu replied with unmoving resolve.

"My, such insolence! But didn't you realize that I, as a shinigami, had already seen your lifespan limit? Unlike ghosts, who have none, your lifespan is all the too obvious!"

"What?"

"The only reason I haven't killed you yet is because I'm waiting for your time to come. Now I'll tell you how many time you have left!"

Youmu's eyes widened at the prospect of horror of knowing her time of death. But then they hardened, as she said, "Don't bluff! You know you're not killing me this time!"

She landed a heavy blow with Roukanken on her opponent's scythe, just as she jabbed with Hakurouken while the scythe was blocking the other sword. Hakurouken tasted blood with another graze, but Komachi, using her scythe like a pole to leap over Youmu, even landing a kick on the girl's back, landed behind her, and grabbed Youmu's ghost half.

"Amazing how you can keep fighting so well with this big marshmallow behind you. Let's see what's going to happen if I pull her away!" Komachi taunted. Then she stretched the distance between her and Youmu.

"Kyakyakya! Owow! No! Don't pull! Don't pull!" Youmu seemed to lose her combat bearing.

"Eh?" even Komachi was surprised, and she let go. "Just kidding, that won't be fair. Let's fight this out properly."

Youmu was surprised by the gesture of empathy, but her eyes hardened themselves again, as she replied, "But I still won't forgive you for what you did to Lady Yuyuko!" and she rushed towards the shinigami.

Komachi leered at her, exclaiming, "Then give me your best shot!" as she raised her scythe to meet the half-ghost in a headlong confrontation.

Both of them were injured and worn out by the battle, Komachi dripping blood as she ran, and Youmu leaving red footsteps.

The two were closing in on each other, Komachi not even bothering to use her distance manipulation abilities.

Both were as eager as anything to bring out the conclusion for the fierce battle.

The distance between them grew smaller…

_[End of Background Music: Youmu's theme – Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird]_

_[Momentary silence]_

BOOM.

Youmu was swallowed by a huge pillar of light, a danmaku of immense power.

"Eiki-sama!" Komachi exclaimed hoarsely in surprise, stumbling from the shock before collapsing onto her knees.

Shikieiki was floating midair with a severe expression. "Youmu Konpaku: Guilty." Then she turned to her subordinate.

"We did not come here to have fun, Komachi."

* * *

_And it was just about to be the decisive round! That's really some trolling, Eiki-sama!_


	23. Challenged Divine Logic

_Well, when having fun in alternate realities like Gensokyo, expect the real world to be your enemy any time. It's already three days since the last time I typed a new chapter. Now I've run out of extra chapters ahead of schedule, and have to do things on demand again._

_I don't know how many times I've said this, but I really really hope this chapter will be the best so far, again. Somehow the dialogues all turned out right, making even me enjoy the way they turn around arguments. _

* * *

**Chapter 23: Challenged Divine Logic**

"Yu… Yuyuko-sama!" Youmu cried out. Her head was pounding like mad, and her whole body was aching, making every moment of consciousness reminding her of the pain. "Oww… why, where am I? Myon? You're tied too?" she said, addressing the big and warm white blob behind her. Ropes were wound around her tightly like chains with her hands behind her back. Her human half and her ghost half were tied together. Myon wriggled, but the tightly bound ropes gave no room for any real movement. Even her legs were tied against Myon's tail.

She was in an enclosed space, a dark place where only the dimmest of lights allowed the faculty of sight to function at its minimum. The air in there was musty.

"I'm heeeeeere too…" a moaning voice came from behind her.

"Wait, who are you? No, I can't turn around, whatever you are, please go awaaaaay!" Youmu asked, her voice turning panicky.

"I woooonn'ttt…"

"Please go away…" Youmu whimpered. To be tied, unable to move while being scared out of her wits by something unknown was the ultimate psychological torture for her.

Then everything turned silent.

"Go away!" Youmu called out to the darkness. Hearing no respond, she asked with fear lacing her voice, "Yo- I mean, it's gone?" she asked the air around her, nearly slipping out calling whatever the thing was 'you.' Luckily she didn't because if she did, whatever that thing was might think that she was addressing it, and would come back. At least, that's what she thought. But then, she wondered who she was asking in the first place.

_Myon, I'm asking Myon, _she tried to comfort herself.

But then there were sounds of something shifting in the darkness.

"Noooo…" she moaned in fright, cold sweat already appearing on her pale forehead. "Please noooo…" Youmu was trembling worse than a Parkinson's disease sufferer. "Don't appear…"

"Yoouuuuumuuuu…" that voice moaned again in a hoarse whisper.

"Kya! No no!" Youmu continued to plead, tears forming in her eyes. "Please don't do anything… Please don't appear…"

"You forgot me already, Youmu? Saaaadd… disappointed in you…"

"Yu-, Yuyuko-sama!" Youmu cried out.

"Ehehe… I'm…" the hoarse whisper was accompanied by the sound of rattling breath. "Yuyuko's rotten…" rattling breath again. "…vengeful ghost!" and Youmu felt a cold presence behind her back. "You…mu… please get… these… maggots out of my eye… they hurt… they hurt… look… they're even falling on you!"

Something slimy and cold touched Youmu's neck.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Youmu was so frightened that she fell backwards, on Myon. It took her 17 seconds to stop screaming and 47 seconds to snap out of the trauma.

"Works every time, ufufu," Yuyuko's voice answered her. The ghost princess was having quite a laugh over Youmu's fright.

"YUYUKO-SAMA!" Youmu cried out, both glad and harried at the same time.

"Ara, who else would it be? My body hurts like mad, laughter is the best medicine. By the way, you taste really bad," Yuyuko's cheerful voice remarked.

"Wha-!" Youmu blushed, glad that Yuyuko wouldn't see her turning red in the dark. But then she felt her forehead pressed against something. It made her blush even more when she realized it was her mistress' forehead.

"Ara, just a little hot, but I take it you're fine?" Yuyuko inquired.

"Yu… Yuyuko-sama…" Youmu searched for the right words. If she was not tied, she might have lunged at the ghost lady and hugged her, but she thought better of it. Memories of what happened before she lost consciousness returned.

"Um hmm?"

"I… I thought you're…"

"I'm dead," Yuyuko caught what Youmu tried to say. "Ghosts can't be killed. They'll either achieve their objective or receive a memorial service. Only then will they disappear. That Yama knew. She just wanted to overwhelm me with pain. And… ufufu, one thing."

"Uh, what is it, Yuyuko-sama?"

"You fought really well, you know. I didn't see that much, but I know you really showed that upstart shinigami. You deserve a pat on the head."

"Th-thanks," Youmu replied, her pale cheeks blushing again from the compliment.

"Ah, but I'm really really hungry right now. Can I eat Myon?"

"Ah! No!"

"Yuyuko," a sleepy voice sounded from below them. "Where is this place?"

"Ah, I believe this is one of the many storerooms we have in my mansion."

"Talk about Shimenawa overuse," Yukari complained. "This many could bind even that Yama a hundred times. Ah, you two are having precious master-servant moments."

"No!" Youmu denied, a little bit too fast. Yuyuko only chuckled.

"Well, she is my servant. I can do what I want with her," Yuyuko replied.

"N-no, it's n-not like that, it's just…"

"Eh?" Yuyuko shot an inquisitive look at Youmu.

"N-no, it's nothing," the half-ghost replied shyly.

Yukari giggled. "Ah, and they say laughter is the best medicine. I could do with some of Alice's Pain-A-Dolls right now."

"Dolls?" Yuyuko asked.

"No, it's some kind of pill she made for headache relief. I heard that she sold them to Eirin, or maybe it's the other way round for all I know."

"Yukari, were you awake all this time?"

"Not all, but I was certainly awake when you touched Youmu with your tongue."

Youmu turned even redder. "Wha-?"

"Well I should've used a wet finger, but with my tied position right now…" Yuyuko replied.

Yukari giggled. "I'm a youkai. I can see in the dark. Although given my position right now, my view would be limited. But Youmu, I can see that you have drool at the corner of your mouth. Guess it can't be helped when sleeping, eh?"

Youmu, beyond embarrassed that Yukari was right, instinctively tried to wipe it away. But then all she could manage was a jerk of the arm, as the rope didn't even budge. The other two in the room burst into laughter. "C-cut it out…" she protested with a resigning tone in her voice. For others, it would be very annoying to be embarrassed like that by superiors, but for Youmu, it was, just plain embarrassing. She did not feel like being angry with Yuyuko. Not at that moment.

But then, there was the sound of a door being slid open. Light rushed into the room. "Ow, close the door, will you, Eiki? My eyes hurt." Yukari complained.

The Yama was standing at the door with a blank expression. "So, have you reflected on your sins?"

"What? You put us in the dark because of that? You never said we should be doing an inner reflection session or something. You put us in a dark storeroom, we'll just play with our shadows," Yukari chided.

"Do we have shadows in the dark, Yukari?" Yuyuko asked. "Although… yeah, it's like asking do we have rice in porridge."

"Ah, food metaphors, right now I'm hungry myself," Yukari replied in a thoughtful manner.

"Don't ignore me!" Shikieiki cut in.

"Ah, sorry, we didn't see you," Yukari chided cheekily.

"Ahem. Yukari Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, and Youmu Konpaku. You three are declared guilty for causing a prolonged winter over all Gensokyo, bringing out the death of countless creatures, most of the hibernating ones, and troubling and inconveniencing humans and youkai alike along the course of two painful months. I must say that it's one of the greatest incidents in terms of casualty and causing suffering. And not to mention one of the perpetrators were the one youkai who should have been watching over Gensokyo's wellbeing, Yukari Yakumo."

"Ah, I didn't remember that being put in the job description," Yukari remarked with the pretence of innocence.

"But that incident was ages ago!" Yuyuko protested.

"Yes. But I never had the perfect chance to come to the surface and deliver the punishments given my tiring workload," Shikieiki answered.

"Well, then why Youmu too?"

"She was an accomplice."

"So Ran should be here too."

"Oh, leave Ran out of this please?" Yukari asked, not sounding the least bit troubled. "And Chen? They don't have anything to do with the incident. It was me weakening the barrier at that time."

"True." Shikieiki affirmed. "While you, Konpaku, were the one carrying out Saigyouji's orders by taking in the essence of spring. Besides, Ran Yakumo is just a slave, a shikigami. You, Konpaku, are a gardener, and are supposed to even be your mistress' sword fighting teacher. You have free will in that matter."

"You are?" Yuyuko asked Youmu with a surprised expression.

"Yes I am, Yuyuko-sama," Youmu answered meekly.

"Why would I learn swordfighting?"

"Ahem," Shikieiki cut across the idle banter. "Konpaku, you should be a better servant in protecting your mistress. Even from herself. Even from her own mischief. You failed when you allowed her to do that sinful act, because retribution will be sure to come some other day."

"Forgive me, everyone," Youmu apologized meekly, at the verge of tears.

"My, my, Eiki, you're scaring her!" Yuyuko reproached.

"I'm not scared! No, I'm not crying too!" but a tear leaked out of her eye.

"Don't worry, Youmu, it's alright to cry. It's me who's supposed to be sorry here," Yuyuko consoled. "But I'm not sorry yet until you explain yourself, Yamaxanadu."

"So, Youmu Konpaku, guilty. Yuyuko Saigyouji, guilty. Yukari Yakumo, guilty. Convicted. Your punishment will come," Shikieiki answered with mechanical emotionless conviction. "Yes, I know that one's coming, Saigyouji. What do I need to explain?"

"A lot indeed, Eiki," Yukari agreed. "But, can you make me sit against the wall? It's awkward speaking in this position. And I'm too hurt to sit up by myself."

Yukari was lying on the floor, her face facing the ceiling, with thick ropes wound around her.

"That doesn't matter," Shikieiki replied. "Your position will not stop you from saying what you want."

"Why would you come all this way for that?" Yukari asked. "Giving a lesson is enough, but tying us up like this?"

"I want you to open a way in the boundary between the human world and the Netherworld."

"Why?" Yuyuko asked.

"I don't see myself doing that for you," Yukari replied.

"Or I'll make your sins hurt you again," Shikieiki deadpanned, the Rod of Remorse in her hand all the too obvious. "Although to be exact, this is the scaled version. You're lucky I'm not bringing the real one used to beat sinners in Hell."

"You're planning something, Eiki," Yuyuko accused.

"Well, I'm sorry but my hands are tied right now," Yukari answered playfully.

"You _will_ do it," Shikieiki stated. "Now for the next phase," she held out her hand, and a mirror appeared, made of a crystal whose luster glowed with purity and taint at the same time. She held it out in front of Youmu. The half-ghost's jaw fell agape as she saw herself in it, doing actions that she regretted in her life. Her heart plunged into her stomach with cold guilt. It was the legendary Cleansed Crystal Mirror, the mirror a Yama uses to show a person all the sins they had committed in their lifetime.

"Don't look," Shikieiki told her. "It'll break your mind. Not now. The time will come when you shall see it in full. Ah… I see…" the Yama mused.

"Ufufu… who knew Youmu did all those things," Yuyuko chuckled, taking a glance of the mirror.

"No, Yuyuko-sama! Don't look!" Youmu cried out with horror, her eyes shut, her face all flushed from embarrassment. "Don't loooook…"

"Oops, sorry."

But Shikieiki did not take that lightly.

WHACK!

"Owowow, owie…" Yuyuko fell facedown onto the floor, a bump on her head smoking.

"Making fun of other people's sins is a sin in itself. Let that remind you of your own," Shikieiki lectured, having given Yuyuko a bonk on the head with the Rod of Remorse. "Hmm, now I've seen how you gathered the essence of spring. I shall do the same for this summer."

"I thought the Cleansed Crystal Mirror is supposed to show sins as a punishment, and not to be mimicked?" Yukari pointed out.

Shikieiki ignored her statement. But then she turned to Yukari. "That reminds me of another of your fault, youkai of borders and boundaries. The Hakurei Boundary is weakened a bit from all the years, letting the tainted sun in. I thought it was your job to make sure the boundary of Gensokyo is in good condition? That carelessness is another great sin. Being irresponsible of a big responsibility is a sin many choose to overlook."

"Wait, you're taking away summer?" Youmu asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To give a lesson, especially to you three."

"Ah, how justified, at the price of making all Gensokyo suffer," Yukari pointed out with sarcasm. "Justice indeed."

"No. At the price of teaching all Gensokyo a lesson," Shikieiki answered, not the least troubled by Yukari's snide remark.

* * *

"A LESSON?" Reimu shouted out, disbelief written all over her face. "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"My, you and Yakumo ask all the same questions," Shikieiki answered with a poker face. "You think I enjoy sending people to Hell? Hell exists not to punish sinners, but to make sure no one sins."

"Ahhh! I still don't get it!" Reimu insisted. "So I'll just assume this is your twisted logic fabricating justifications for you to cause an incident."

"My, such blasphemous words," Shikieiki tsk tsked.

"Such blasphemy in the name of justice!" Reimu snapped back.

"And one of the biggest lessons is for you, heir of Hakurei, the shrine maiden who's so carefree that she did not realize that Yukari forgot to strengthen the binding on the Hakurei Border, allowing the tainted sun to pierce into Gensokyo and bringing out this unnatural summer. Not to mention allowing a full winter to fall on Gensokyo before realizing it was actually an incident. Even then she waited for information instead of finding out herself straightaway, and letting Marisa to go ahead by herself when it would have been better for the future of Gensokyo if you two were to work together and not individualistically. What if Marisa runs into harm along the way? Or is defeated? Who will save her?"

"But the fact that I'm here still means that I'm doing my job, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu! The fact you're here, means that _you're_ the one not doing your job!" Reimu smart-mouthed.

"I _am _doing my job here."

"You're right," Reimu gave a determined smile. "Now it's the time for me to do my job and pwn incident makers." Then she added with relish, _"And looks like you're on the list."_

"Doing your job is one thing," Shikieiki answered back, her voice softening, "your intentions, meanwhile, is another. Is it a sense of duty, or just looking forward to enjoy senseless violence? Is it a sense of duty, or just wanting to get it all over with before returning to laze back in the peaceful confinements of your shrine? Solving the situation is one thing, understanding the situation is another. Won't you rather question and understand before you take action?"

"Either way the results will be just the same," Reimu retorted. "No matter. I prefer to pwn first, and ask questions later."

"_So be it_," Shikieiki smacked the Rod of Remorse on her palm. Komachi appeared at her side.

"Time to teach _you _a lesson," Reimu's face split into a grin.

* * *

_One hour before deadline! I did it!_

_Ahem. I hope this chapter turns out really enjoyable. Logic and morality battle anyone?_

_Oh, next chapter? Showdown time!_


	24. The Race up Saigyou Ayakashi

_Dun dun dun… (You know I say that every time I'm not sure what to say)_

_Ah well, in my MS Word Document, this story had gone past the 100th page. But I know there are many Touhou fan fiction out there that's at least thrice longer than this. My story would've been just a novella so far._

_Sorry for the slightly longer wait. It is a boss confrontation after all._

_Ah, but now I've read through it, again, I really really hope this is another best chapter. Really, I don't know why that happens every time. No, the best chapter. Read at your own risk. Is this the epic final boss battle?_

_Oh, and of course, if you can't pwn your enemy's logic, pwn them with force! Might is right, people!_

* * *

**Chapter 24: The Race up Saigyou Ayakashi**

_Hakugyokurou, the Afternoon Of The Day Of The Incident_

_[Start of Background Music: Shikieiki's theme: Fate of Sixty Years]_

"Very well, I thank you for your cooperation, Yukari Yakumo," Shikieiki told the gap youkai.

"Glad to help," Yukari answered with more than a little bit of sarcasm, "in whatever crazy plan you have right now." She was still tightly bound by thick ropes, but her right arm was free. She was now on her knees on the ground, the Yama and the shinigami vigilantly watching over her.

In front of them, a black hole floating in the air large enough to swallow a bus swirled menacingly.

"Komachi, tie her hand again," Shikieiki ordered.

Komachi was just about to tie her when a small gap appeared beside Yukari's head. "Shikieiki caught me in Hakugyokurou," she whispered.

"Eiki-sama!" Komachi pointed at the gap. The Yama yanked the rope from Komachi's hand and tied Yukari herself. The gap disappeared. "But… I think whoever is on the other side would've heard already."

"I know," Shikieiki dismissed nonchalantly. "I was counting on that."

Yukari looked at the Yama with a cross expression.

"Now, Komachi, separate the three into their respective solitary confinements."

"Roger."

* * *

_The Present_

"You sure took your time," Shikieiki commented.

"Sorry, it's too hot in here, Eiki-sama. I went out for a breath of cool air," Komachi replied. Since the boundary of Netherworld was broken, the temperature there had risen noticeably.

"Can we fight it out outside? This place is too hot it's not good for the skin," Reimu suggested nonchalantly, letting go of the ghost she caught earlier. They were in front of the stairway leading out of Hakugyokurou. Saigyou Ayakashi loomed majestically in the background.

"Sure!" Komachi replied pleasantly, leaning on her scythe.

"No," Shikieiki prohibited.

"Aw…" Komachi grumbled, but stopped, seeing Shikieiki's stern glare.

"You'll regret that, because then I'll defeat you faster before the heat gets into my head," Reimu told her adversary.

"Nope, you're the one at a disadvantage here, because I'll be going all out on you. I don't like fighting long in this heat," Komachi talked back.

"Heh, for a shinigami, you sure are talkative," Reimu brandished her gohei and charged towards the shinigami.

"Why thank you, this field of duty actually requires a lot of charisma," Komachi answered gracefully. But seeing Reimu closing in on the distance between them, Komachi held out her scythe in readiness. But then she grinned.

"Eh?" Reimu's eyes widened in amazement as she realized that she was not moving forward, but instead seemed to be running on the same spot on the ground no matter how hard she seemed to try to rush forward.

"Are you having a jogging practice?" Komachi taunted, bringing down her scythe. DUMM. Reimu leaped to the air, the scythe passing between her feet, and sent a kick that Komachi blocked with the handle of her scythe. Then with a leap, the shinigami retreated.

Reimu continued to sprint, even if strangely she did not seem to be making any progress, running on the same spot on the ground.

"Aw, you look so silly and so cute, at the same time, running on a spot like that," Komachi teased.

"It's you!" Reimu gasped, sweat drenching her forehead. "You did something with the distance!"

"Indeed. Even though usually I'll use this power for evil souls, I'm making you an exception!"

Reimu launched to the air, but to her surprise, even when flying towards her enemy, she still remained over the same spot, like just hovering instead of actually flying at full speed. "What's… what's happening?"

"Ha, you look so cute and silly!" Komachi moved in for the kill. She swiped with her scythe, but Reimu blocked the handle with just her arm, and just as Komachi pulled the scythe down to make the blade cut her, Reimu repelled the weapon with a well-aimed side kick. But Komachi, already having a move in mind, exclaimed, "Tip of Death!"

"Coins!" Reimu exclaimed in surprise as the danmaku shot out from Komachi's outstretched hand. But with rapid reaction time, she repelled each one of them using her gohei. "What a waste!" she expressed her distaste, focusing as to not miss repelling every single coin. But Komachi took just that moment to bring down another deadly scythe blow. Reimu's eyes widened, just as the scythe descended with a sickening thud.

It hit the ground, just as Reimu shifted to the left. _I got it! _the shrine maiden said inside her mind. _Even if she warps distances back and front, I can still move left and right!_

But Shikieiki appears at her side, and hit her with a blow from her Rod of Remorse, sending the shrine maiden spinning and tumbling on the ground. "Charge of Virtue," the Yama announced. Double lines of large projectiles shot out from her side, each one as large as Reimu was.

Still dizzy from the blow and Reimu gasped upon the realization that Shikieiki was directly on her right, meaning that with Komachi warping the distance, she couldn't dodge the bullet by moving forward, backwards, or towards the left or right. So she rose to the air, releasing her own streams of danmaku.

But Shikieiki was expecting that. She rose to the air, still firing the Charge of Virtue, and in a burst of speed, soared in an arc over Reimu, releasing the danmaku in the shrine maiden's direction every twenty degrees. Reimu was surrounded by shots from all sides, and she realized that unfair fact. Because of Komachi's distance twisting powers, her maneuvering space was now two-dimensional. And Komachi was not being easy with her.

"Tip of Death!"

Homing coins shot out from the shinigami's hands.

"I can't believe there's someone in the world that can make me hate money!" Reimu exclaimed angrily. "Dream Sign – Duplex Barrier!"

A square of energy and talismans formed around her. The spellcard she summoned consumed her enemy's shots, saving her from an instant checkmate. But again, her opponents were not being merciful. As soon as the spellcard cleared, Komachi closed in with a violent strike using her scythe. It was all Reimu could do to block the incoming blow with her hand.

Thud.

Reimu let out a gasp of pain, tears forming in her eyes, as pain filled her entire being. The dull thud was the back of the scythe hitting against her palm, crushing the delicate bones of her delicate hand. True, at least she was not hit by the blade, or it would be a really horrible injury, but it was still quite a damaging blow. And the pain was not little. Luckily it was not the hand holding the gohei, or her fighting ability would be greatly reduced.

And in just the split moment she was overwhelmed by the pain, Shikieiki followed with another hit from her Rod of Remorse. The shrine maiden was thrown away by the brutal hit, sent tumbling again by the force of the blow, this time on the side.

"Lie – Tongue of Wolf," a powerful barrage of wobbly lines of white hot balls of danmaku spreading in all directions spread out from around her, filling nearly the whole field, the close arrangement and the brightness of the salvo creating a blinding effect. Even Komachi was awestruck by the display of power.

Each of the danmaku hit the ground with fiery explosions. Reimu was no longer visible, swallowed by a curtain of danmaku. The sound of explosions would have made even any screams of pain inaudible.

"Eiki-sama! Won't that much kill her?" Komachi asked, worry apparent on her face. She hit Reimu with the back of her scythe on purpose. She wanted to defeat her enemy, not kill her. But now she was wondering if her master was thinking differently.

"She's stronger than that. At the most she'll be injured enough to be defeated, and will raise the white flag," Shikieiki replied knowingly.

"This is a gohei, not a white flag!" Reimu reprimanded sternly, even if the pain in her expression was discernible. "And I'm stronger than that. As if I would surrender to a criminal like you!"

She had appeared on the bark of Saigyou Ayakashi, the colossal leafless cherry tree.

"Ah, you teleported. Very wise," Shikieiki complimented.

"By releasing Dream Sign – Fantasy Dimensional Rift," Reimu declared. All around her, circles of talismans burst out midair, spinning and spreading out, the closely arranged salvoes like ripples in the air.

"Komachi," Shikieiki commanded.

"Yes," the shinigami replied. She then shot towards Reimu's direction, as Reimu teleported every two seconds, appearing on different points on the bark of the great tree, standing horizontally and defying gravity as the small Yin and Yang orbs swirled around her. Still focusing on her spellcard despite teleporting haphazardly, Reimu scattered talismans over the air, as Komachi avoided each one of them with focus.

She nearly got caught at an intersection of three ripples, but she then released a spellcard of her own. "Throw Away – Money From the Yesterday!"

Three expanding rings of coins shot out of Komachi's outstretched hand.

"Tsk, I hate it when she throws money around like that," Reimu grumbled under her breath.

"Danmaku Judgement!" Shikieiki joined in. A blue vortex of energy appeared in front of Komachi's cone of danmaku. As soon as the coins pass through the vortex, they became bigger and faster, even making Reimu worry about dodging them in time even when she could teleport.

It became something like a dodging contest. Komachi seemed to be enjoying herself, flitting through the air, making midair maneuvers to avoid Reimu's barrage, while Reimu stepped aside at a speed not caught by the human eye, avoiding every bullet aiming towards her, each coin embedding itself on the tree trunk and exploding, leaving smoking dents on the bark.

"They're not coins, they're just bullets, they're not coins, they're just bullets, they're not coins, they're just bullets," Reimu tried to comfort herself. Seeing coins wasted and exploding around her was to her, a disconcerting sight, when it was so hard for her to ever see that much coins in the Hakurei donation box in her entire life. "Ah! You really yanked my chain! How dare you waste coins like that! Talisman – Exorcism of the Newspaper Subscription Solicitors!"

A huge sticker with Reimu's face on it, with the words 'No newspaper solicitations, thank you!' appeared. Then it disintegrated into a dense array of danmaku.

"Eh? I don't sell newspapers!" Komachi reacted, but the dense barrage was already swarming towards her like an avalanche of balls of light. "Tsk," the shinigami swiped with her scythe causing an unearthly aura to spread in front of her.

Suddenly Saigyou Ayakashi seemed to be growing taller, and the swarms of danmaku seemed to shift a few metres up.

"Wha-?" Reimu blurted in surprise.

"You really heat me up! I'll defeat you before overheating myself!" Komachi shot through the air with a burst of speed, landing on Saigyou Ayakashi just below Reimu, running upwards on the bark of the great tree.

"I was counting on that," Reimu muttered to herself, wiping her brow as she saw the shinigami sprinting towards her.

Shikieiki stood midair, focusing on her spellcard, "Lie – Tongue of Wolf," she muttered with a serene expression.

Reimu ran up the tree, as Shikieiki's violent barrage of raw power spread towards her in a blinding cone of light. But then her eyes widened in amazement.

Distance is length. Height is vertical length.

As Komachi focused her distance manipulation, Saigyou Ayakashi seemed to grow shorter, and Reimu running upwards seemed to be not making any progress at all, as if she was running on one spot. But the treetop was getting closer to her. _I knew it! She makes distance appear longer or shorter!_

Explosions all around her sent jarring vibrations along the tree's entirety, as Shikieiki's spellcard peppered the trunk with danmaku. It was already an achievement for her to run up the tree dodging Shikieiki's barrage. She wondered if she would survive long enough for Komachi to reach her.

Then Komachi reached her and swung her scythe at Reimu. "Ha! Eh?" she exclaimed in surprise.

Reimu blocked her scythe with just her gohei, the wooden stick holding itself against the handle of the deathly weapon.

"That's quite strong for a flimsy stick!" Komachi exclaimed, increasing the pressure, hoping to break the shrine maiden's weapon.

But Reimu continued to hold her ground, not letting go of the scythe. Explosions still rocked the tree, but Shikieiki knew better than to rain her own subordinate with her spellcard.

"My, you're quite strong, aren't you!" and while saying 'you,' Komachi slid the scythe into making the blade press against the gohei. Amazingly the gohei still did not break, and Komachi continued adding the pressure, keeping her eyes alert if Reimu was fumbling to take out a spellcard.

But Reimu was not thinking of taking out a spellcard. Instead she moved aside, shifting aside from the downward force of Komachi's strike.

Thud.

The scythe embedded itself on the tree bark.

"Did you even think why did I lure you here in the first place?" Reimu asked with an indiscernible grin, as Komachi struggled to pull out her stuck weapon. "Dream Land – Super Duplex Barrier!"

Komachi shot to the air, letting go of her scythe as Reimu's spellcard materialized into a square of swirling talisman danmaku and energy. One caught her arm, making her gasp out in pain. _Ow, right at the spot where that half-ghost grazed me, _Komachi thought with teary eyes.

But luckily she avoided the full force of the spellcard in time. She still dodged the remaining danmaku.

But just as Reimu's spellcard dispersed, Shikieiki plunged through the air towards her like a jet plane.

Reimu dodged just in time, as with deadly force, the Yama still releasing her barrage of danmaku hit the tree bark, sending an explosion of energy sparks and wooden splinters into the air, leaving a mark like a crater on the wooden surface, sending Komachi's scythe spinning through the air.

"Thank you, Eiki-sama!" Komachi spoke in gratefulness, swooping to catch her scythe.

Reimu sprinted up the tree again, wanting to put as much distance as she can between her and the Yama. Her eyes catching sight of the branches above, she knew that that would really be a help to shelter her from the violent all-spreading danmaku.

_At last, the top! _Reimu exclaimed triumphantly in her mind.

But Komachi was already waiting for her there. "Hello," she greeted cheerfully with the scythe on her shoulder.

Then it became frenetic again. Reimu frantically fired danmaku as Komachi shifted, and descended down towards her with a scythe strike.

Crack.

Quite a few arm-thick branches were cut by the furious blow. Reimu ducked just in time, and fired danmaku at Komachi's legs. The shinigami leaped into the air with a triumphant grin, and brought down the scythe right over Reimu's head. A miscalculation on the shrine maiden's part, it was already too late for her to dodge. She would've rolled aside, but her position between the closely knit branches made that option unavailable.

Thud.

"Ha?" Komachi and Reimu stated at the same time. One of the branches seemed to shift by itself, and blocked Komachi's deadly blow. The scythe ran straight through the thick mass of wood, the tip emerging out of the other side, ten centimeters from touching Reimu.

Reimu panted, gasping from the shock and adrenaline. Even Komachi was dumbstruck for a moment. _Saigyou Ayakashi itself is against me?_

"Fantasy Orb!"

BOOM.

Komachi was thrown a few meters into the air by the force of the blast, smoking like a shot plane.

_Hot… _her mind screamed… _everything is so hot… _as tears streamed out of her closed eyes, as she fell through the hot air and down onto the ground.

But Shikieiki caught her.

Meanwhile, up on the tree, Reimu lied on a branch, panting and all sweaty from the exertion of the battle. _That was… quite a battle. I nearly lost my life… The air… it's roasting me… So hot… so…_

"You're all alone, Reimu, that's why you're overpowered," Shikieiki told her calmly, floating in the air above her. "Let this be your lesson. If only Marisa is here-"

"MASTER SPARK!"

_[End of Background Music]_

_[Momentary silence]_

BOOM.

Shikieiki dodged in time, but not fast enough. Her Rod of Remorse was thrown away, swallowed by the explosion of rainbow colored magic. She swished her right hand, which was smoking, the shadow of pain running across her severe expression.

"Marisa Kirisame, Ordinary Magician, _is_ here, ze!" Marisa exclaimed triumphantly, riding on her broom.

"You're the one alone now," Reimu slowly got on her feet.

"Nice to meet you, judge from Hell," Marisa greeted cheekily.

"Ufufu…" Shikieiki chuckled, putting a hand over her mouth, the first time the stern look leaving her face. It was as if she was amused by the turn of things.

* * *

_Woot! All hail the ordinary human magician! So far I'm loving this battle. Reimu did not disappoint. Even if she got overpowered, she really did her best. How about Marisa? And that chuckle?_

_ Teaser? Things are so tense nearing the climax that I don't really bother giving out teasers anymore. You guess what's coming next._


	25. Remorseful Bickering

_Here goes! (Another variation of dun dun dun…) _

* * *

**Chapter 25: Remorseful Bickering**

"Eh? Shikieiki Yamaxanadu is the culprit?" Marisa exclaimed in surprise. "Da ze?"

"Affirmative," Ran replied, her yellow eyes staring at Marisa grimly. "Yukari-sama was held hostage by the Yama Shikieiki in Hakugyokurou. She sent me a message saying that. I sneaked into the Netherworld with the portal my master opened, and saw… her."

"Who?"

"The Yama Shikieiki of course," Ran told her. "My master used to say that she herself was no match for someone like Eiki, so I decided better than to try rescuing her myself. Just returning from my errand, I was thinking of going to Hakurei Shrine, but then I saw you."

"Wait, wait, wait," Marisa told the kitsune. "So, the Yama, who is supposed to be the one to judge between good and evil, is now starting an evil incident, and is holding Yukari the mistress of mischief hostage? That sounds twisted."

"Yes," Ran answered. "The Yama seems to be stealing summer because Hakugyokuro was sweltering like a cooking pot. That would explain the winter."

"Why does she want to steal summer? Who's Yama Shiki-, er, what's her name?" Flandre asked.

"Why are you bringing this young Scarlet mistress with you?" Ran asked.

"Um, Patchy asked me to bring her out to play," Marisa made a quick lie.

"And Sakuya wanted to stop you?"

"Ah, she thought I stole some books again," Marisa continued. "Ah, no, no, not stole! I always borrowed!"

"I see, borrow, borrow indeed," Ran nodded with sarcasm. "You better not lose against that Yama, or she'll have a lot to tell you off with. Like your borrowing exploits. And your lying."

"I don't lie, ze!"

"That is a lie," Ran shrugged. "And that Yama certainly won't forgive you."

"Why would I be scared? I'm not dead yet!"

"Unlike in the outside world, the Yama in charge of Gensokyou also gives lessons to living mortals once in a while, painful ones," Ran told her.

"I know, I know, she'll try to give me a scolding with danmaku," Marisa huffed.

"Well, let's not lose to her like you did with Cirno," Ran said pointedly.

"Aw, dang! How did you even know of that?" Marisa smacked her forehead.

"In Gensokyou, that's already common knowledge," Ran answered simply, as Flandre seemed to enjoy herself paying attention to every detail of the snowy landscape, the frozen flowers, the buried grass, the white snow, the cold tree barks, and even the frozen leaves, joy lighting up her childish face.

"I'll kill that tengu!" Marisa muttered.

"Ayayayaya, did all that I hear is right?" Aya appeared, floating upside down, one hand holding her tokin cap and her notepad against her chest while the other hand was holding her black skirt as to not make it slide down given her position. Her apparel was the same as usual, but an orange scarf was wound around her neck. "Yep, information is my warfare and spreading news to all Gensokyou is my priority. The Yama is the one causing this sudden winter?"

"I remember you!" Flandre pointed at the reporter.

"Uh, if it isn't the little Miss Scarlet," Aya's face was lit with excitement. "I mean the littler one. What are you doing out here? No wonder Sakuya chased Marisa like mad."

"You followed us since that time?" Marisa asked with a mixture of incredulity and annoyance. "Wait, you know her, Flandre?"

"Gensokyou's fastest professional reporter, the sweet and honest Aya Shameimaru, nice to meet you!" Aya turned upright again, and shook Flandre's hand, the little vampire's expression a mixture of wonder and curiosity. "We've met before, although your violent danmaku game didn't allow me to properly introduce myself."

"Yeah, it's that crow nee-chan that broke into the mansion and said she wanted to take pictures of me playing danmaku. Sakuya was mad though, and chased her away."

"Ah, how nostalgic, the Shoot the Bullet project," Aya replied, sounding proud of herself. "I have to admit, little missus, yours is one of the best in my collections." She snapped her finger, and a crow appeared, carrying a camera by its strap in its beak. "Smile!"

"Eh?" Flandre smiled awkwardly, showing her tiny fangs, and Aya seemed to take pictures of her from every angle. "Ow, the light!" Flandre covered her face.

"Greedy Magician Aids Little Miss Scarlet's Bravado Escapade From Onee-Sama's Dungeon of Overpossessiveness!" Aya exclaimed. "How does that sound?"

"Uh…" Flandre thought, wearing a blurry expression, while Marisa exclaimed angrily, "What greedy magician!"

"Believe me, one day that'll be one of your titles in one of your future adventures," Aya replied with a shrug. "So, Ran, 'Gensokyou's Obnoxious Mistress of Gaps and Borders Taken Hostage By the Yama of Paradise: Are They Having A Nagging Session?'"

"Uh, I prefer you _don't _write on Yukari-sama like that," Ran replied, crossing her arms.

"Ah, ze! I'm on the way to solve this winter incident!" Marisa dismissed with annoyance. "How can we tell you everything if we haven't solved it yet? Wait for us to return and then ask questions. It's not like you're going to be any help other than being an irritating annoyance. Leave us with our mission!"

"Oh, okay," Aya wiped the grin off her face. Then with an explosion of wind, she shot through the air, and shrunk into a small black blot against the dawn's dark blue that soon went out of sight.

"Was it something I said?" Marisa asked the other two. They nodded slowly.

"Aya… Shameimaru," Flandre muttered to herself, her eyes scanning the sky.

"What?" Marisa asked.

"Nothing, she smelled delicious, but then everyone from outside smelled tasty," Flandre shrugged.

"Don't even make me worry about taking you with me," Marisa commented.

"Just kidding," Flandre answered dismissively. "The sun's going to come out."

"Yeah, we really lagged a bit here," Marisa agreed. "Wear your cloak and don't look in the sun's direction, it'll burn your eyes and skin."

"Hwaa… I'm feeling sleepy…" Flandre yawned.

"Well, Ran, can you take care of her?" Marisa asked. "I'll be back. So, care to show me where the hole leading to the Netherworld is?"

"Can I come with you?" Flandre asked. "You're going to have fun alone, are you?"

"Eh? You sure a vampire can go and save Gensokyou?"

"Well, if a Yama can start an incident, why not?' Ran asked. "Besides, I'm not just going to stay at home babysitting a vampire. What if she gets hungry, or made a mess out of Yukari-sama's mansion? Besides, I don't think she's as well-behaved as Chen."

A popping explosion. "Marisa! I made the bird go kyuu~!"

On a tree, a pair of tiny smoking legs was still gripping a branch. "Yeah, she might just make Chen go kyuu~," Marisa agreed. "And you'll go 'Cheeeeeeeeeen!'"

"Ahem," Ran cut her banter, her cheeks flushed.

"'Cheeeeeeen!'" Marisa teased again. "'Cheeeeeeen!'" Even Flandre was rolling on the snowy ground laughing.

"AHEM," Ran cleared her throat louder than before. "We don't have time to lose."

"Oh yeah, you're right Chen," Marisa answered playfully.

"I'm Ran, Ran, not Chen!"

"'Cheeeeeeeeen!'"

Ran put on a cross expression. But Marisa was already on her broom with Flandre. "Hey, what are you waiting for ze? You said you were coming?"

Ran took a deep breath. "Yeah, Yukari-sama needs saving."

"And we're off!" Marisa sped her broom. Ran trailed behind her. "Uh, faster will ya? Aren't you the one supposed to show the way?"

"I know. You'll handle the shinigami and the Yama, I'll sneak in and search for my mistress."

The pair sped through the forest, flying between trees, when suddenly there was the sound of rushing wind, and Aya reappeared in front of them. "Got it!"

"Eh, what?" Marisa asked, surprised by the sudden appearance as her broom flew past Aya. But Aya launched into the air following her.

Without stopping, the tengu spoke to Marisa, "Well, the part about you saying that I could be at least a little bit helpful, here," she passed a few photos to Marisa.

"Take it Flandre, I'm driving," Marisa told the vampire as she swerved aside a bit, avoiding a big tree trunk, just as Aya effortlessly avoided the obstruction without even having to look in front of her.

"They're photos of Shikieiki and Komachi's spellcards," Aya explained. "I got them during my Shoot the Bullet project. You can study their attack patterns before meeting the real thing. At least you won't end up surprised."

"Whoa, thanks, ze!" Marisa thanked the tengu, swerving again to avoid another tree. "You know, the part about you being just an irritating annoyance…" Marisa started reluctantly, but the tengu gave a dismissive arm gesture.

"Nah, don't worry, that's the 56,472nd time I heard that. It's fun to hear people's comments."

"What? At least feel a little bit guilty about it!"

Aya just stuck out her tongue cheekily. "Well, you fight while I take pictures, is that okay?"

"Humph," Marisa scorned.

Still at flying speed, Aya held her camera and got into a picture taking position. "Smile at the camera!"

"Eh?" Marisa looked at the tengu focusing at her through the camera's viewfinder.

"MARISA!" Flandre's voice cried out.

Click. CRACKABOOM!

The sickening crashing sound echoed through the forest. Birds were sent flying as one of the trees in the great forest fell down with a mighty crash, hit by a speeding witch and a vampire on a broom. And a certain tengu was just there to capture that moment in photography.

"Ow…" the two moaned, sprawled over the fallen tree trunk.

_Talk about tree-hugging, _Aya thought to herself. But nothing stopped her from taking pictures of the accident. "Wonderful snapshot opportunity!" Then, realizing that she will be blamed for the accident, she shot to the air at maximum speed, leaving the scene.

"My head…" Marisa moaned.

"My arm…" Flandre grumbled. At the last moments, she had used her arms to reduce the impact, bringing down the tree with her unnatural strength.

Ran just clicked her tongue in pity.

"Owowowowow! Don't bite don't bite don't bite!" Flandre was biting Marisa's hand.

"Nexf fime keef four eyef on fhe hoad when hriving," Flandre grumbled, still not letting go.

Ran shook her head. "Don't talk with your mouth full, Che-, I mean, Flandre."

* * *

"Ufufu…" Shikieiki chuckled, putting a hand over her mouth, the first time the stern look leaving her face. It was as if she was amused by the turn of things. "Ah, the kleptomaniac greedy magician. Wait till I get at you and point out your wrongs," and with these words, she zoomed through the air with a burst of speed, chasing after her thrown Rod of Remorse.

"Not if I can help that, ze!' Marisa raced after the Yama on her broom, one hand for maneuvering, the other gripping her mini-hakkero. She was just about to shoot, but thought better of it. "Flandre, catch that thing!"

What appeared to be a black bundle in front of Marisa's seat shot through the air in a flash. The hooded cloak was thrown back by the wind, revealing a head of blonde hair wearing a mob cap, and a pair of crystalline wings from the back.

"Flandre Scarlet?" Shikieiki muttered through gritted teeth, as with the speed of a tengu, the little vampire sped past her, catching the Rod of Remorse midair.

"Marisa, catch!" Flandre called out and tossed the tablet in an arc.

"Da ze!" Marisa zoomed to catch it, but…

BONK. The Rod of Remorse fell on her head with devastating heaviness.

"I see… the Milky Way…" Marisa spun through the air, her broom dropping down like a shot goose. Luckily she landed on the tip of Saigyou Ayakashi's branches, the flexible twigs catching her fall.

"Oops," Flandre muttered, just as Shikieiki sped towards the Rod. The Rod slipped between the intercrossing branches and continued its plunge downwards. Flandre, knowing at least that the Rod had some importance to Marisa, quickly tried to intercept it from the Yama. But just as her hand caught it, another hand grabbed it at the same time, trying to pull it away from her. "Reimu-nee?"

"Flandre, give it to me!" Reimu commanded sternly.

"Marisa wants it!"

Marisa sat up on the branches, a hand holding her forehead. Her broom was stuck between branches just out of her arm reach. But then she saw what Reimu and Flandre were doing. "Reimu! Give it to her, ze! I trust her!"

"You trust this embodiment of destruction?" Reimu shouted with incredulity.

"Stop being silly, she's just a kid!" Marisa called out.

"You're the one being silly!"

"Marisa wants it!" Flandre insisted. "I'll give it to her!"

"Wait, why would _you _want a Yama's Rod of Remorse?" Reimu shouted. "Adding into your collection, Marisa?"

Marisa reached out with her hand, and her broom unlodged itself. "Aw, shucks! There's nothing wrong with that!" she shouted back. _Gah, Reimu, why did you always guess right?_

With a jerk, Flandre yanked the Rod from Reimu's hand.

"Why you," the shrine maiden growled, "that's not a toy!" she lunged with her arms, trying to snatch away the Rod in Flandre's hand. But Flandre used it to knock on Reimu's hand. Bad news for Reimu, that was the hand that was hit by Komachi's scythe.

"Aaaahaaaa…" the shrine maiden nursed her hand with tears of pain and anger in her eyes. "You little brat!"

"It was just a gentle tap!" Flandre shrugged. "That thing was as light as paper anyway."

"WHAT?"

But then Shikieiki swooped between them and snatched the Rod from Flandre's hand.

"Now look what you've done!" Reimu scolded Marisa and Flandre. "This is the worst time for greed, Marisa!"

Marisa zoomed towards Reimu on her broom. "Now look what _you've_ done, ze! You and your prejudice against anything that's not human! She's just a kid!"

"Says the one who used a kid for greedy purposes!"

"Cut it out!" Flandre shouted.

But Shikieiki just stood midair, wearing a blank expression while watching the bickering.

"Look, because of you, we're having this senseless quarrel!" Marisa blamed.

"If there's a time for greed, it's not now, Marisa!"

"What's wrong with taking souvenirs?"

"Souvenir? That's the Rod of Remorse!"

"Gah…" Flandre smacked her forehead. "Aren't you supposed to fight the bad guy?"

But the pair still bickered. Flandre sighed, then she did something that made all the three speechless.

"Kyuu~."

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

The Rod of Remorse blew into pieces in Shikieiki's hand, the fragments then erasing themselves from existence. "What? Ah… I see. Innocence of a child. No wonder the Rod felt light to her."

"It's all because of you!"

"Me? I'm stopping the theft of a divine artifact!"

"You're just stubborn are you? Well, the first one to pwn the Yama is right, ze!"

"Challenge accepted," Reimu crossed her arms with an indignant expression.

"Pretty easy challenge, ze? How scary can a Yama be without her stick?"

But then the menacing figure of Eiki rose behind the pair, wielding Komachi's scythe.

* * *

_Woot! All hail the cliffhanger! Sorry, the end was teaser enough. To quote Willie G.R: Nuehehehehe…_


	26. Final Battle

_26 = 13 x 2. Double thirteen, double nekokuro13 awesomeness! Lol, random._

_One of my best chapters so far, again, I think. Fasten your seatbelts everyone! _

* * *

**Chapter 26: Final Battle**

Ran Yakumo sprinted across the corridors. Everything was silent in a deathly way. But she realized that the further she went in, the hotter the temperature. Doors aligned the long hallway. She opened each one as she advanced, checking inside before continuing.

"Yukari-sama!" she called out. But the mansion of Hakugyokurou was completely silent. Sweat drenched her forehead, the worry inside her rising.

She slid another door open. As soon as it opened, a ferocious wave of heat escaped, surprising her. But then she realized that she found someone.

It was Youmu, bound in thick ropes, gagged and lying unconscious on the floor.

_Found one, _Ran told herself.

* * *

_[Start of Background Music: The Memories of Phantasm (Full Version)]_

It was a double hit. Marisa and Reimu were sent spinning from the swipe. Despite the fact that the Yama used the back of her scythe, it still hurt a lot.

"Gah!"

"Gahha!"

"This hurts me more than it hurts you," Shikieiki held the scythe in readiness. "Be well prepared, for I am coming."

"Hakurei Amulet!"

"Illusion Laser!"

A straight-lined laser burst from Marisa's hakkero, while square amulets materialized in front of Reimu, homing on her enemy. Shikieiki only stood calmly, and dodged the laser by stepping aside. Then by twirling the scythe, she hit every amulet into exploding. "Hmm, this weapon is much more imbalanced and whimsical than I imagined. No wonder it suited someone like Komachi," she said, rising to the air two meters to avoid Marisa shifting her laser aim. "Seriously…" Shikieiki let out a sigh, but then she chuckled. "Ufufufu… So you really are getting in the way of my plans. Naughty children indeed," she swung her scythe at her side, breaking Flandre's laser Lävatein just before it could pass through her.

"Wha-," even Flandre was surprised.

"Should I send you all to hell?" Shikieiki exclaimed, rushing at Reimu with her scythe aloft. "Should I? Should I? Should I!" she said, swiping her scythe against the shrine maiden with every sentence, who was already nearing her limit from all her fight with Komachi and spending her time in the overheated environment. It was all Reimu could do to avoid, and block one of the blows with her gohei.

"Hell does not exist to punish sinners! It exists to make sure no one sins!" Reimu protested, trying to hold off the heavy blow.

"Earthlight Ray!" Marisa's voice called out. A trail of light fell upon Reimu and Shikieiki, and both had to avoid the incoming laser blast, Reimu narrowly escaped being shot by her own friend.

"Whoops," Marisa said apologetically.

"You want to kill me, Marisa?" Reimu shouted, just as Flandre sped past her and brought down Lävatein once again on the Yama. The Yama dodged aside just in time, as in an arc, the red fiery laser even scathed the pristine bark of Saigyou Ayakashi.

"The arc of your swing is just too predictable, Flandre," Shikieiki commented, avoiding Lävatein's sparks.

"Hakurei Amulet!" Reimu released more of the homing amulets, while Shikieiki zoomed towards Flandre, the little vampire's expression turning into one of surprise as Reimu's amulets were homing towards her instead. She used Lävatein to destroy them, but Shikieiki appeared behind her and hit her with the back of her scythe.

"Gah!" Flandre exclaimed in pain and surprise, swinging her Lävatein again at the Yama, but one of Reimu's amulets caught Flandre instead.

BOOM.

"REIMU, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!" Marisa yelled.

"Whoops," Reimu put a hand over her mouth.

Flandre coughed from the explosion. "I'm okay!"

"Well, I knew that she's stronger than that, unlike me, I'm… on my… last legs," Reimu panted.

"At least feel sorry about it!" Marisa scolded.

"Heheh," Reimu only sniggered. Her head felt heavy, and her vision started to blur along the edges. She shook her head hard, trying to maintain a sharp bearing.

And Shikieiki closed in on Marisa, as Flandre's Lävatein followed her.

"Whoa!" Marisa spun midair to avoid the fiery laser, just as Shikieiki raised her scythe and struck a heavy blow with it.

"Gah," Marisa retreated, but not before realizing that behind Shikieiki were a descending Lävatein and another batch of Reimu's amulets.

"Wah! Master Spark!"

Another huge blast of rainbow-colored laser burst out of her mini-hakkero, nearly hitting Flandre and Reimu at the opposite end of the battlefield.

"Whoops," Marisa mumbled apologetically.

"Feel guiltier of your wrongs!" To Marisa's surprise, it was Shikieiki saying that, bringing down her scythe on the magician. Marisa avoided a scythe in the face, but with a sickening crunch, the deadly blow unfitting for someone of Shikieiki's built snapped Marisa's broom into two halves.

"Da ze…" Marisa said her last words, as gravity started to take its toll. "Reimu! Flan!"

With a burst of speed, Flandre went after the falling magician, catching her just in time. "How pathetic," Shikieiki muttered. "As in, pitiful."

"Flandre, carry me, I will fire at the deranged judge," Marisa told her, her heart broken to see her beloved broom hitting the ground in two pieces.

"Eh? But you're quite heavy," Flandre commented.

"Hey hey! You should never call a woman heavy!" Marisa interjected.

"Yeah, you're not heavy, but Onee-sama's much lighter than this."

"That's because she's a midget!"

Miles away, Remilia gave a great sneeze.

"Eat this!" Marisa exclaimed, as Shikieiki closed in the distance between them again."Starlight Typhoon!" Lines and wavy lines of star-shaped danmaku burst out at random intervals, while lasers burst out from the ends, but Shikieiki dodged the salvo with dexterity one would not expect of her, and just as she nearly reached the two, Flandre, still lifting Marisa by the collar with one hand, gave a great swipe with her Lävatein, forcing Shikieiki to retreat to avoid the sparks. But unfortunately, her swing caught the tip of Marisa's foot.

"Aoooo," Marisa howled with tears in her eyes, grabbing her smoking foot. Her sudden movement made Flandre lost her balance.

Seeing the two in trouble, Shikieiki closed in again, scoring a hit using her scythe with a dull thud as Flandre blocked it with her arm. The vampire's eyes turned teary with pain, as she heard the sound of cracking bones. True, Shikieiki used only the back of her scythe, and with Flandre's great strength she could stand most blows that would have been fatal for others, but Shikieiki was not using normal strength. And it was the hand lifting Marisa.

"Illusion Laser!" the witch released another shot, and this time it caught the Yama on the shoulder. But Flandre lost her grip on Marisa. "Flan!"

But the Yama did not retreat. "This is the weight of all the things you have stolen in your whole life, Marisa," she said, raising her scythe.

"Five thousand kilos!" Marisa blurted, still falling through the air. But Flandre blocked the incoming blow with her palm, saving her. "Flan!"

"Mari…sa," the vampire cried out in pain.

"And see how you have pained others because of it," Shikieiki followed that swipe with another, right at Marisa's stomach. Being hit by violent blows while falling through the air would have been something that will scare most people to death, and in terrible pain, Marisa only realized that when she saw the ground growing closer underneath.

"Now, Flandre, I hope this teaches you that battles are not mere games. There are people hurt in it," Shikieiki lectured, then she left the two.

But then a blur of speed caught Marisa. "Aya!" she exclaimed, her spirits rising.

"You falling into bloody pieces would've made a good snapshot, maybe even the picture of the year, but I can't just stand and look, right?" the tengu gave a wink.

"Wait, you're already here all this time?"

"Gensokyou's fastest and most professional reporter here!" Aya said proudly. "Nitori lent me this long-range camera she just invented. Not bad, seeing how I can take pictures without being caught in the battlefield."

"Wait, where's Flandre?"

"It hurts…" the vampire flew beside the two. "I think I broke my arm."

"Flandre, leave now, this is not just a game anymore, this is a battle!"

"No, I can't leave just like that! Even in games I can't leave my teammates just because they're losing, so what if it's real? I can't leave my teammates to die!" Marisa and Aya turned silent upon hearing Flandre's words.

"My, wonderful line!" Aya complimented. She even took out her notebook, holding it with her mouth and wrote on it with her free hand.

"Eh? You can do that?" Marisa asked. Then she turned to Flandre. "Really, Flan, this is a grown-up's battle. I'll win, I promise."

"I'm 495-years-old already! When will anyone treat me like a grown-up?" Flandre protested.

Marisa turned silent. Then she said, "Wait, Flandre, I think I understand everything right now. Thanks!" she gave a smile. "Now I understand why Shikieiki's messing with us the way she is. Aya! We need to save Reimu!"

"Haha, since when I've become a sidekick? But, well, roger that!" with great speed, she carried Marisa in the direction of Reimu.

At the base of Saigyou Ayakashi, Reimu was having trouble holding off the Yama.

Clang. Clash. Swoop. Clash. Dumm. "And I'm not even using any spellcards yet," the Yama nagged. "Where's Marisa when you need her? Why is she leaving you alone, when you're already on the verge of collapsing?"

"Shut up! It's a contest!" Reimu objected, avoiding every blow, the effort taking quite a toll on her.

"And you're on the losing side, are you?"

"Paparazzi-Repelling Barrier!" lines and lines of danmaku radiated from around her, spreading in all direction, as Reimu herself seemed to be covered with white-hot danmaku, blocking herself from view.

"Danmaku Judgement!"

A blue vortex appeared in front of her, just as Shikieiki left with a burst of speed. As Reimu's danmaku passed through the vortex, they became even bigger and faster, much to the horror of Marisa, Aya and Flandre.

"Reimu, it's us!" Marisa called out.

"Ah, too late," Aya replied. "Say cheese!" she took out her camera.

With a click, a square area around them became danmaku free. "Whoa, thanks!" Marisa replied.

"Marisa, my arm's now all better!" Flandre told her.

"Excellent," Marisa replied, realizing that vampires had unnatural regenerating abilities.

"I won't say sorry!" Reimu suddenly interjected, much to the surprise of Marisa and the others. Her spell was still passing through the vortex at deadly speed and strength.

"Ayayayaya!" Aya, still lifting Marisa by the witch's collar, retreated hurriedly as the swarm of danmaku went after them like an avalanche of light.

"I'm nearly collapsing here! I've been here in this hot place longer than you! I'm tired from the battle before! That Yama nearly killed me! And you, you only cared about the contest to show that you're right!" Reimu shouted, sounding as if on the verge of tears. They may not be able to see her behind her curtain of danmaku and Shikieiki's vortex, but they could guess that Reimu was right on her last legs. The shrine maiden was probably on her knees, or having problem standing.

"I know, I'm wrong Reimu!" Marisa answered. "That's what Eiki tried to tell me all this time. I'm… I'm sorry Reimu! I'm too caught with trying to look cool while being greedy for souvenirs and credits! Reimu, I'm sorry! Eiki wanted us to go against her together, not against each other! If she was really serious, she would've killed us many times right now! Reimu, I'm at fault, I'm sorry! I even left you to fend for yourself just because I'm having troubles of my own! I'M SORRY REIMU!"

Aya and Flandre could only stare silently at the drama.

"Marisa… thanks. I… I'm not being myself… I can't think straight. I'm… sorry… too," Reimu's voice replied. The curtain of danmaku disappeared, revealing Reimu on her knees, sobbing, yet trying her best to hide and wipe away her tears.

"Now you get what I'm trying to point out to you?" Shikieiki asked them from a distance.

"Yes!" Aya replied. "I shouldn't always just remain a bystander if things require me to help. Being a reporter doesn't mean I can't help making sure the news become a happy one."

"No cigar, but close, really, really close," Shikieiki nodded with a kindly smile.

"That's why you've been only hitting us with the back of the scythe, right? To teach us what a failure we are when trying to fight alone?" Marisa asked.

"Ufufu…" Shikieiki chuckled. "Well then, I won't say much, but..." with frightening speed she rushed at Marisa with her scythe. Aya pulled her aside, but the Yama went past her and right into the blue vortex, her speed multiplying, as then it became clear that she was actually targeting Reimu.

BOOM.

A cloud of dust rose into the air. The vortex disappeared, while Reimu and the Yama was nowhere to be seen. A huge crater was there on the ground around Shikieiki, while Reimu was thrown back by the impact, flat on her back, her gohei thrown out of her reach.

"Reimu!" Marisa cried out.

"Judgement – Cleansed Crystal Judgement – Reimu Hakurei!" A huge mirror made of crystal appeared in front of Reimu. The Yama retreated a safe distance away, while inside the mirror, the reflection of Reimu released a spellcard.

"Boundary - Duplex Danmaku Bounded Field," the reflection declared, as Reimu realized with horror that a square line of energy started to snake around her, marking the area that would be completely overrun with danmaku.

_This is it. This is the end, _Reimu thought.

"I'm teaching you that do not expect to get anything unless you push yourself to the max and give your best and fullest. You've been too lax all this time," Shikieiki muttered.

But then, the spellcard vanished.

"You're not the Reimu that I know!" Marisa exclaimed, standing between Reimu and the mirror. The reflection inside became Marisa's instead.

"Ah, such a brave move. Admirable, but can you go against your own sin?" Shikieiki said.

The reflection inside said, "Loving Heart – Double Spark!"

But Marisa was ready. "Loving Heart – Double Spark!" she mimicked, and summoning all remaining strength, she aimed her hakkero, as her Double Spark pushed headlong against her reflection's.

It was a terrifying blinding display of raw power, as both Double Sparks pushed against each other, evaporating the ground around it, whilst every second the point where the two sparks met shifted, once in a while to the front, towards the mirror and once in a while in Marisa's direction. "Copies can never hope to defeat the real one ze!" Marisa shouted, putting all efforts into her blast.

An explosion. Both spellcards canceled each other. Marisa panted, collapsing down onto her knees. "Reimu, help me, I'm out of… Master Sparks."

Reimu crawled on her knees towards Marisa. "I can summon some strength, but I don't think I can… defeat you in raw power," Reimu whispered.

Marisa's reflection let out a smug grin, and declared, "Magicannon – Final Master Spark!"

And worse still, Reimu's reflection appeared on the mirror, declaring, "Divine Spirit – Fantasy Seal – Blink!"

"Ahaha, silly Reimu, looks like we'll die together, ze!" Marisa took out her hakkero while Reimu aimed her gohei.

"Let's be a ghost and haunt Eiki after this." Reimu joked.

"Do your best!" Reimu and Marisa said in unison.

"Ayayayaya! What can I do! What can I do!" then zooming at full speed, Aya pulled Reimu and Marisa into the air, away from the line of fire. True, that saved them from reflection Marisa's huge Magicannon, but Reimu's Fantasy Seal started to materialize around them. "Sorry guys, we're surrounded. I don't think I can slip between those amulets and that barrier with both of you."

"Then leave us!" Marisa told her.

"No!" Aya insisted, the answer surprising even herself, as more talismans materialized, going to surround and hem them in.

"What?" Reimu and Marisa exclaimed in surprise.

CRASH.

Shikieiki's eyes widened. "You all lost?"

But then she realized that it was not the spellcard exploding. It was the spellcard disintegrating. Lines and lines of talismans formed around her, as Reimu's voice declared, "Divine Spirit – Fantasy Seal – Blink!"

Shikieiki smiled, somehow pleased with the turn of things. "How?"

In front of the Yama's mirror, Flandre was covering it with her little body. Being a child with no sins, nothing is reflected inside, making Reimu and Marisa's reflection disappear.

"But Reimu, this spell needs time to fully be fatal," Shikieiki told her, "I . Can. Break. This. Barrier. Before. That!" she exclaimed, slashing with her scythe with every word, as the confining barriers started to crack.

But then Flandre tapped her shoulder from behind.

"Eh?" Shikieiki turned.

No, not Flandre. Three Flandres.

The three clung on the Yama, like naughty children leaping onto a mother, declaring, "Taboo – Four of A Kind!"

"What is this? What? Ufufu… I give up, I give up!" the Yama started to chuckle uncontrollably.

"Won't do!" one of the Flandre said, then each of her other fellow copies finished her sentence.

"Three bombs in enclosed space…"

"…won't be pretty."

"Prepare for hurting."

"Ahahahahaha…" Shikeiki laughed. "Okay," she gave a content smile, closing her eyes, and throwing away her scythe behind her, accepting her defeat.

_[End of Background Music]_

BOOOMMMMM…


	27. The Judge Judged

_Really, really sorry for the hiatus. Real life had successfully snatched 24 hours away. So I made up for that with 2 new chapters! _

* * *

**Chapter 27: The Judge Judged**

"To… Komachi," Shikieiki stated, as her consciousness faded, and she fell facedown as her knees gave way. The copies of Flandre clinging around her had vanished right after the blast, leaving the lone figure of the Yama right in the middle of a crater.

"I won! Marisa, I won!" Flandre ran excitedly at the magician.

"You sure did, ze," Marisa replied with a wide grin. "Ow…" she put a hand on her stomach, "she really hit me hard here…"

"Eh?"

"I'm fine. Reimu is another story, though. Let's get out of this fake hell," Marisa told Flandre.

"Smile for the camera!" Aya told them all, as a flash of light followed.

* * *

Shikieiki opened her eyes. The golden rays of dawn were visible.

"Eiki… sama?"

"Komachi!" she answered in shock, seeing the shinigami's face just two inches from her own. "What… where?"

Marisa chuckled. "We're near the entrance to the Netherworld," Komachi told her, "Eiki-sama."

Shikieiki noticed the snow underneath her. She was sitting against a bamboo cluster, one of the millions in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, while above them was the gaping portal to the world of ghosts and phantoms.

"Komachi said, you look less tall and imposing when you're unconscious," Marisa told the Yama.

"Wha-?" Shikieiki and Komachi said at the same time. "I never said that!" Komachi denied.

"And that she missed the opportunity to see you wield her scythe. It would've probably been a badass sight, the great judge wielding a weapon made for someone a head taller."

"I never said that!" Komachi denied.

"Well, my height and figure aside…" Shikieiki began.

"Ha, gotcha ze! She only said height, she never said figu- BFEH!" Marisa fell on her back as Shikieiki threw a well-aimed rock at her forehead.

"That's for lying," Shikieiki scolded. "Wait, all of you are here?"

"Yes, Eiki-sama," Youmu answered, sitting opposite the Yama. "Ran carried us out from Hakugyokurou after your defeat."

"Still alive here, ufufu…" Yuyuko chuckled, floating beside Youmu.

"No, you're technically dead," Yukari teased, sitting on the edge of a gap positioned at chair-height, while Ran stood by her side. "Alive, yes, but 'still alive' is not appropriate for your case." Yuyuko chuckled again, then gave Yukari a gentle smack on the back of her head.

Reimu was standing by Youmu side, her posture erect and her expression stern. "You owe us all an explanation." As she said that, arms crossed, all heads turned to look at Shikieiki. Even Aya, sitting by the Yama, was getting ready to scribble in her notepad.

"Ah, I feel like being convicted here," Shikieiki replied, fixing the position of her askew hat.

"You are," Reimu asserted.

"Ufufu… the irony."

"You're the one putting yourself in this situation in the first place."

"Oh my, you really can nag, and when a Yama tells you that…" but Reimu only shot her a cold stare. Even Komachi seemed apprehensive waiting for Shikieiki's answer. Shikieiki sighed, and took off her hat. "Very well, what I've done, is never against the Rules in the first place."

"What?"

"Do gods create men, or men create gods? Do gods need men, or men need gods?" Shikieiki asked.

"What do you mean?" Reimu asked, frowning.

"Aha, I see…" Yukari held out a finger. "New gods come into existence every time enough belief is gathered, and even then, gods require the beliefs of men to maintain a powerful existence. So doesn't that mean that gods aren't entirely independent beings?" Reimu gave her a quizzical stare.

"That is one of the many rules that even gods could not really escape," Shikieiki continued. "True, some may be able to break free from the dependence circle, taking abode in dimensions free of this dependence, but they could never change the fact that it was men, or some other beings with belief that created them."

"I don't envy them. Must be tiring to be a god, then," Yukari shrugged, "having to gather human's faith like that. Unlike us youkai, being born of fear. And fear is so much easier to harvest. Not to mention when there are eight million gods who all wanted to monopolize belief at the same time. At least fear is never a monopolized concept."

"But there is a being that's out and unbound by these rules," Shikieiki continued. "Many have forgotten him, even some of us divine celestials, yet all of us, we feel his presence, whether we notice or not. A name for him is Tian, and some refer to him as Heaven, or Cosmos. To put it simply, he was the maker of the rules and order of the universe, rules that even us divinities could sometimes never hope to break, from simple and material rules that even the most mundane of mortals would notice, like gravity, which many divinities could bend with power, to rules that were much less easy, or impossible to bypass, like the faith dependence cycle.

"Now," Shikieiki continued, "back to the situation we are in right now, what I did was not against the Rules in the first place."

"Of course not," Reimu pointed out, still staring coldly at the Yama. "If it was against the rules of the cosmos, doing it would be impossible. Murdering innocents, for example, is not against the rules of the universe."

"But as for my case, it is," Shikieiki denied.

Yukari sighed. "Gods and their rules. That's why I never fancy being a god myself. I'll rather be youkai even if I'll live a million years being the same old me."

"Old?" Ran asked, receiving a smack from Yukari with her fan.

"What will stop you from being an evil divinity bringing destruction, like what you did this time?" Reimu asked.

"Another rule for us divinities," Shikieiki continued, "is that we cannot act or go against our nature, or it'll warp or corrupt our existence. A benevolent god of good harvest, for example, cannot maliciously bring out a plague, or it will corrupt her essence, and she will cease to be what she once was.

"I was once a Jizou," Shikieiki told. "Jizou are embodiments of the wishes and hopes of people to be saved and granted escape from Hell. I am still a Jizou at heart, and as a Yama myself, I will try my best to show compassion in judging my subjects unless they are really hopeless cases. Plus, I am the bringer of judgment for the souls of the dead. If I myself am corrupted, won't that be a contradiction to my existence?"

"So?" Reimu asked.

Shikieiki gave a kindly smile. "I did not incite this incident merely for the sake of inciting an incident. Let me ask you. If there is justice in this cosmos, why do people suffer in this world? Why do even the kindhearted suffer, or being wronged?"

"Why do you ask us all the philosophical and conceptual questions?" Reimu asked. "Are you trying to confuse us to justify your actions?"

The Yama tilted her head. "It is suffering that raises the human spirit. Many were saved from Hell by passing through the trials of life, as long as they did not give up being on the righteous side. Even when they are not one to do many good deeds, by persevering through hardship and not giving up to strive for the better, they become closer to enlightenment."

"So, what does that have anything to do with what you have done?" Reimu asked, still miles away from being convinced. "Are you saying that by making people suffer, you are saving them from Hell?"

"Indeed, I am not proud of my actions," Shikieiki put her hat by her side, on the snow, then smoothing her green hair, which was slightly ruffled from the fight, allowing it to flow, the longer right side touching her shoulder. "But then it is now time for me to explain in full."

"Humph," Reimu scoffed. "Go on then."

"It began when I came to know about the incident when Yukari and Yuyuko stole spring for months from Gensokyo. That was one big incident, and so far, it was one that tipped the balance of Gensokyo quite a lot, as it lasted more than two months. I was even more surprised to know that Yukari herself was among the perpetrators, when she was supposed to be one of those to care for Gensokyo's well being."

"Ufufu… Me? Caring for Gensokyo's well being?" Yukari asked. "Is that even in the job description?"

"You don't have a job," Reimu deadpanned.

"Sleeps twelve hours a day, not in employment, education or training, yep, perfect NEET, ze," Marisa agreed, sitting while hugging her knees. Her hat was tilted slightly to the right to hide a bump she got recently from a flying rock. Flandre was sitting beside her, the vampire trying to catch a glance of the bump.

Miles away, a certain Moon princess sneezed.

"I know that you carry an air of disregard for me, Hell and rules," Shikieiki continued, "and so I came to the conclusion that if I did not teach you three a lesson, you'll continue breaking the rules and bringing disasters to Gensokyo without feeling as much as a little guilt."

"Heh, but there's always Reimu here," Yukari pointed out.

"And me, ze!" Marisa reminded.

"Ah, I see, now I get it, ufufu…" Yukari covered her mouth with her fan. "Then it's good to know, you are implying that Yuyuko, Youmu and I will outlive the Hakurei shrine maiden and Kirisame the magician?"

"Hear that Youmu? We'll outlive those two," Yuyuko whispered.

"I can hear you," Marisa commented.

"It is against my work ethic, or Komachi's, to disclose a person's lifespan while he or she is still alive. But unless the unexpected happens, the probability of you outliving the two is high," Shikieiki stated.

"But Gensokyo," Yukari continued, "will always have some other people who will continue their work, right? One day, Reimu will have children and descendants to continue the Hakurei heritage, don't you, Reimu? Cute little children that will cuddle around you calling you with tiny voices, 'Mama, Mama!'" she added teasingly.

"Wha-what? I'm, don't try to change the subject! Get back to the main subject!" Reimu protested, her face flushed.

"So I preferred to give a lesson, one that you will not forget. Hell does not exist to punish sinners. It exists to make sure no one sins. But for youkai living as long as Yuyuko and you, Hell does not seem to be a daunting prospect, the more so given your carefree and whimsical nature. And Yuyuko's a ghost who does not seem like passing on any time soon. So for someone with so much influence over Gensokyo, for whom Hell does not seem like something that will stop them from considering their actions, I made a decision. If Hell is not a lesson to them, I'll bring them a lesson from Hell."

"Wow," Marisa uttered, while Flandre was nowhere in sight.

"I could've done it the usual way," Shikieiki continued, "with danmaku and some scolding, but I decided to make the message really sink with something else: An incident.

"As I said, it was not against the rules. Divinities have been causing calamities and disasters to befall the human race for ages, either to punish them for their wrongdoings, or even for something as simple as reminding humans that they exist. The rules did not disallow that, as long as it befits the divinity in question. Like the example, a benevolent god of harvest can't unleash a malicious plague. But of course, that's why there are more benevolent gods than malicious ones, to counter their evils.

"But in the outside world, humans have learnt and attributed disasters into scientific and natural causes, reducing belief in the supernatural, and thus limiting the powers of divine beings. Their disbelief are often like poison, so a god cannot appear before them like they did in the olden days, or the disbelief will corrode their essence, and even nullifies their powers as long as they were in the vicinity. Appearing in front of humans will only be unnecessary risk and even a waste of energy while they could've gathered the amount of belief needed without having to manifest. Even more of them were forgotten, and losing the belief they needed, their powers disappeared. It was like death for them.

"But not in Gensokyo. As far as I know, I am the only Yama to walk among mortals in waking reality. So I still have the ability to do things like the divinities of old, as long as they do not clash with who I am. I am Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, Jizou turned Yama, Highest Judge of Paradise, with the ability of establishing things as good or evil. I know that this incident is not an evil selfish act, even if others or many will disagree. Don't children hate teachers for carrying out disciplinary actions in school, even to the extent of calling them evil? If I am not confident in the good behind this incident, I would not try it for it will tarnish my name and even corrupt my existence, even putting me out of my job."

"You sure about that? You could get fired the next thing you know," Reimu commented scathingly.

"I am a judge. My word is law, and I don't break the law. You can ask any other gods in Gensokyo, they will agree with me. Divinities had been bringing out disasters and calamities on mankind for ages, all with purposes suiting their nature. As for me, it is not even what one would call a calamity, or disaster. In fact, it was pretty much very tame."

"How does being a Yama have anything to do with starting a winter?" Reimu asked, still staring a Shikieiki suspiciously. But then, without her hat, the Yama looked like just any other human girl, with her teenage-like stature, despite her expression carrying an air of regal compassion.

"It was all carefully planned. I took everything into consideration. Firstly, as I said, I was teaching Yukari, Yuyuko and Youmu a lesson. So I'm making Hakugyokurou a place to remind them of the horror of Hell. It's also to remind Yukari that she had to fix the Hakurei barrier so as to not let the tainted sun in, which was the cause for this unnaturally hot summer in the first place.

"Secondly, the ghosts. If the Netherworld is overheated, won't that be simply an inconvenience for them? But then, they were not exactly not at fault. They were with Yuyuko enjoying the spring she stole when the incident happened, under full knowledge of her plans, even going so far as to try and stop our heroines.

"Thirdly were the humans. Won't it be unfair for them to be suddenly given an abrupt winter overnight? This is also a lesson to them. They were being ungrateful most of the time, complaining of the summer. So seeing that they don't want the summer, why shouldn't I take it away for a while for them to appreciate and realize that the natural order is the best in actuality? Pessimists will then realize they should've been accepting the summer as it was and not wishing for the opposite, while optimists will welcome the change for once in a while and be thankful. And, as I pointed out, troubles in this life are to raise the human spirit one step closer to enlightenment.

"Then how about all the other youkai, animals and creatures of Gensokyo? Won't this sudden winter hurt or kill them? Albeit a little bit too sudden, winter brings snow, and snow is water, something that Gensokyo had been losing along the course of the unnatural summer. It will also help to reduce the heat for a few days while Yukari is fixing the barrier. And for your information, that's because this being an overnight summer, it _is_ overnight. I intended it to last for not more than twelve hours. That's why the heat flow stopped around right after midnight. I'm letting Gensokyo return to summer again. Just half a day of freezing won't damage the natural balance. Everything should have started thawing anytime now."

"Wait, wait, wait, you only wanted the winter to last one night?" Reimu asked.

"Yes," Shikieiki answered. "If you had come earlier, then it would've been over earlier. As much as this is a lesson for the three, I didn't intend it to last very long."

"Let me guess, Reimu, because of you, we've been enduring the oven for an extra three hours?" Yukari asked pointedly, while Yuyuko gave a pointed stare, covering the bottom half of her face with a fan.

"Ehe… sorry, how could I possibly know that?" Reimu answered nervously.

"I'm teaching you a lesson that even a moment delayed in solving an incident could mean a lot to Gensokyo, and to the people involved. And then there is the thing about giving your best in everything you do. That's why unlike Marisa I really pushed you to the limit."

"But, but…" Reimu tried to deny what the Yama pointed out. "Aw, come on, it's not like I'm not doing my best when I need to."

"That's why I made you need to," Shikieiki continued smoothly. "I also pointed out to you both the importance of working together and understanding the importance of noticing if your friend needs you. A productive competition is good, but there are situations that require working together instead of racing against each other.

"Aya," Shikieiki turned her head. The tengu was sitting by her side, scribbling as the Yama spoke. "Know the responsibilities of being a journalist. Despite the need to try one's best in conveying the truth, there can never be a representation that is absolutely without bias. Writing changes the truth."

"And Flandre," Shikieiki started, but then she realized that Flandre was nowhere to be seen. "Now where is she? She was one person I never expected to be here."

"I'm here," Flandre appeared out of thin air, wearing a cloak like a hood to protect herself from the first rays of sunlight. "And Then There Will Be None."

"You kyuu'd a bird, again," Shikieiki told her.

"I-I wanted to learn controlling myself, onee-sama won't let me come out unless I can control myself! When… when, only then onee-sama'll treat me like a grown up!" Flandre voiced out.

"To be a good little sister and obey Remilia, that is the good deed you can do right now," Shikieiki spoke with firmness in her voice. "You are one that I never expected to meet in my brief visit. For you, just remember that even if for you, something is fun or enjoyable, like a game, it could be hurtful for others. People, youkai and animals are not dolls. And… cherish your innocent childhood as much as you can. Growing up is something that most people would want to reverse if they can."

Flandre only stared at the Yama, her mouth half open. Then snapping out of the daze, she said, "Why… why was there nothing in the mirror? Why was… why was the stick light to me but heavy to Reimu and Marisa?"

"Because you're a child. Children don't go to Hell," Shikieiki replied with a kindly smile. "But you still have to behave. Naughty children deserved scolding, and karma may not be kind to you."

"Yukari, Yuyuko, remember this," Shikieiki stood up, albeit a little bit shakily. Komachi came to help her. "No, Komachi, I'm fine. Remember this, Yakumo, Saigyouji. The longer you live, the greater your sins. The greater your power, the greater your sins. The greater your responsibility, the greater your sins."

"But gods live the longest, have the greatest responsibilities, and have the greatest powers," Yukari gave her comeback.

"Ufufu… indeed," Shikieiki agreed. "That's why rules bind us divinities."

"Oh, geez, so you just did some explaining and then it's all over?" Reimu asked.

"Talk about smooth talking, ze," Marisa agreed, putting her hands behind her head. "Usually it's the good guys lecturing the bad, not the other way round."

"Ufufu… indeed," Shikieiki answered. "I am not a bad guy. I have nothing to fear."

"Well, Eiki-sama," Reimu approached the Yama.

"Um hmm?"

Slap. In a move that startled everyone, Reimu slapped the Yama in the face. The judge stared at her wide-eyed, her face flushed. "Next time, don't give very hard lessons anymore! What if we failed? We nearly got killed!"

"Ahem," Shikieiki pulled herself together, clearing her throat. "I'm not going to get angry with you. Maybe I even deserved that, a bit."

"Youngsters these days," Yukari muttered with a sigh and a smile.

"Youngsters?" Ran asked, and Yukari slapped her behind the head with her fan again.

"Reimu's right," Youmu voiced out her agreement. "I… I really worried about Yuyuko-sama… and Yukari-sama."

"Oh my, oh my, worry about yourself first, okay?" Yuyuko laughed dismissively. "We'll be fine, Yukari especially had been gone through worse pinches than this, right? She nearly got blasted into atoms together with quite a few miles of Gensokyo with her once."

"Don't remind me of that," Yukari told her. "That time it was planned."

"I really want to smack you with the Rod of Remorse myself, too bad it was destroyed," Reimu said crossly. "Or we'll be having a hitting session."

"Ufufu… then I'm glad it was destroyed. Using the sins of others on themselves for blaming with ulterior motives is a sin in itself. It's not healthy for the soul," Shikieiki answered, smiling serenely.

"Says the one who had been doing it all day."

"I don't have ulterior motives. It's my job."

"Gah, that's it, lesson or not, the next time, if you're thinking of bringing trouble again into Gensokyo, I'm not going easy on you," Reimu concluded.

"Same here, da ze! Just in case Reimu suddenly comes running with tears in her eyes, saying, 'Help me, Marisa! I'm too weak!'"

Reimu gave her a right on the moment bonk-on-the-head. "Who in their right minds will ever say that!"

"Owowow, you're cute when you're angry, heheh," Marisa commented, grinning.

"Now, Komachi, let's go, sorry for all the trouble," Shikieiki put her hat back on. "Komachi, want to join me for some ramen? I know a kind lady who owned a ramen restaurant in the human village."

"Really?" the shinigami asked with excitement.

"Eh?" Shikieiki turned to look at her quizzically. "Of course, why not? But as soon as we're done, it's instantly back to work. You had your day off alright."

"Aww…"

"And no extra helpings."

"What?"

"I know you can eat more than four bowls in one sitting."

"D-d-don't say that in front of others!"

The pair left.

"Wow, that's some adventure, ze," Marisa said to the dumbstruck group.

"Yeah," Reimu agreed.

"We're having a feast tonight!" Yuyuko declared.

"Yep," Yukari agreed.

"Wha-?" Youmu and Ran asked in unison. "Already?"

"You know, Reimu," Marisa started. "I was wondering, shouldn't there be an Extra Stage boss or something?"

"What could be more extra than Shikieiki?"

"There they are!" a voice cried out, "Give us back Flandre!"

"Eh?" Marisa were caught off guard seeing Sakuya, Patchouli, Meiling and a group of fairy maids all heading towards her at once. Flandre hid behind Marisa.

"This, is Extra?" Reimu asked. "At the most, Sakuya is a Fifth Stage boss."

"Return Flandre, or you'll have to face all of us at once, ah," Sakuya said, before suddenly hesitating, seeing those other than Reimu and Marisa there on the clearing. Even if they outnumber the group with the fairy maids, let's say it was obvious that they thought they couldn't go against the duo, Yukari, Ran, Yuyuko and Youmu all at once. Not to mention if Flandre went against them, it would be much more disastrous.

"Ah, don't mind us, we're not having anything to do with this scuffle," Yukari said, and disappeared into the gap behind her with Ran. "Come, Ran, we have some barrier repairs to do. And then you'll have to make arrangements and preparations for the feast."

"Yep, is lunch ready Youmu? I've waited for sooooo long!" Yuyuko left with the half-ghost.

"Keep me out of this," Reimu said in an it's-not-my-problem tone.

"Flandre, you with me?" Marisa asked.

"Eh…?"

"It's just a game."

"Ooh, yeah, a game!" the little vampire's face was lit with excitement.

"Uh oh, she said it," Patchouli told Meiling.

"Yep, she said it. Heavens have mercy on us," the gate guard replied, cold sweat already appearing on her forehead.

"Flandre!" another voice interrupted. A figure swathed in a black hooded cloak landed amidst the group.

"O… onee-sama!' Flandre ran to meet her sister. But then, a few steps from Remilia, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, hesitating.

"What?" Remilia asked.

"You're… you're not mad at me, right?"

"Eh, ojou-sama, where did you get this? I don't remember having one of these your siz-, um, I mean, nice cloak, ojou-sama!" Remilia gave Sakuya a deathly glare which stopped her mention of 'size.'

"That puppeteer in the forest," Remilia replied. "I had to, because the sun was rising. Return them for me later, Sakuya."

"Yes!"

"Geez, that Alice!" Marisa muttered crossly. "And she won't even lend me anything. She trusted that vampire more than me?"

"I don't blame her," Reimu gave a snide grin.

"Ojou-sama," Sakuya said, "not only the magician destroyed quite a section of the mansion's roof, she also stole Flandre!"

"Nah, I can deal with collapsing roofs later," Remilia dismissed the idea. "Flandre," the vampire had her red eyes fixed on Flandre's own, which also shared the same tinge of red.

"Yes… o-onee-sama…" Flandre answered. "I… I just wanted to play outside. And I even saved Marisa and Reimu… er, I mean, I saved summer, in a way…"

"Flandre, you defied my orders, and from what Sakuya told me, you destroyed quite a portion of the roof, yes, I know she said Marisa, but like I wouldn't guess? And you even made friends with this human and escaped the mansion with her," Remilia said sternly. Then she took a deep breath, and sighed.

"D-do you know, how, how worried I was?"

"Eh?" Flandre was taken aback.

"Ahahaha!" Marisa burst into laughter. "Flan, I knew it, your sister was being tsundere with you after all!"

"Soon-day-what?"

"I'm not!" Remilia denied, her pale cheeks flushing.

"Yeah, you're not!" Marisa answered with sarcasm. "Aw, too bad I don't have a little sister to go all tsun tsun and dere dere with. Oh, and while I'm at it, I never noticed, but now seeing you standing by each other, you really match each other, like twins!"

"Why thank you, oh wait, I know what you meant by that!" Remilia told Marisa off.

"Yep, Flandre will soon outgrow you," Reimu added, making clear the fact that Flandre was as tall as her sister.

"Stop it! I'm having a charismatic talk with-,"

"Onee-sama," Flandre interrupted."Are… are you still mad at me? Can… can I still play with the snow… a bit before going inside? Will… will you play with me?"

"Geez," Remilia replied, turning silent for a few moments. Then she gave a resigned sigh. "Alright, alright, just a little bit, okay? I'll ask Sakuya to make a shaded spot in our lawn. The snow's going to melt in a while anyway."

"Yay! The puppy eyes worked!" Flandre cheered.

"What?"

Even Sakuya giggled at the antics of the two.

* * *

_Don't miss the next chapter!_


	28. Ending Credits

**Chapter 28: Ending Credits**

_Megurimeguru (Comes Around, Goes Around)_

_Vocals: Sasa Asuka_

_Lyrics: Renka & TOKINE_

_Composition: TOKINE_

_Arrangement: TOKINE_

_(Touhou Anime Project Ending Credits Song)_

_Mawaritsuzukeru tokei no hari ga kizande yuku setsuna o_

_Ugokihajimeta kokoro no oto ga hibiite iru_

_(The needles of the clock that keep spinning mark the moments_

_The sound of a heart that started to move is echoing)_

_*Reimu and Marisa went up the stairs to the snow-covered Hakurei Shrine, chatting and slightly bickering along the way. They finally reached the top, only to find Suika waiting for them there, waving cheerfully, behind her a pile of watermelons. Marisa grinned while Reimu facepalmed._

_0_

_0_

_Sono hibi wa osanai koro no kioku no sumi kakushite_

_Sugite yuku hodo ushinatte shimau yume no you_

_(Hide those days in the corner of memories from when you were young_

_Like dreams that you lose as they pass by)_

_* Remilia walked home to Scarlet devil Mansion, hand in hand with Flandre. Meiling opened the key to the gates, letting them in with a cheerful smile. Scene changes to Sakuya setting and fixing a large canopy over the lawn, then her standing back with her hands on her hips with a satisfied expression as Flandre leaped with childish joy._

_0_

_0_

_Nakidashisou na kimochi ga mune o_

_Shibaritsukete shimatte mo…_

_(Even if the feeling of almost bursting into tears_

_Is bound to my chest…)_

_*Scene changed to Flandre throwing a snowball at Remilia's snowman, reducing it into a myriad of pieces. Remilia angrily chased her sister underneath the canopy, but slipped and fell outside the shaded area. Scorched by the sun, she quickly went under the safety of the shade again._

_0_

_0_

_Kako o megurimeguru kotoba no imi o_

_Watashi wa kizuite ita hazu yo_

_(I must have noticed_

_The meaning of the words that come around from the past)_

_*Shikieiki walked with Komachi carrying her scythe into the human village, the eyes of all villagers fixed upon them. And made their order at a ramen restaurant._

_0_

_0_

_Dare ni mo kizukarezu hakanaku kiete shimau_

_Sono yowai kokoro o mitsukete…_

_Anata ga ima sono te o nobaseba kitto_

_Shinjite irareru kara…_

_(Find your weak heart that is ephemeral and vanishes_

_Without being noticed by anyone…_

_Because if you reach out your hands now_

_I'm sure that I can believe in you…)_

_*Youmu and Yukari had tea together with Youmu, Ran and Chen busily working in the background trying to prepare for a banquet. Chen slipped and sat up crying. Ran hurried to help the nekomata and threw the pile of things she was carrying onto Youmu's pile, and the half-ghost legs shook from the weighttrembled before collapsing, buried under the heap. Yukari and Yuyuko turned to look at the three._

* * *

_[Music stopped a while]_

"I'm glad Remilia-sama's not mad with us or Flandre," Sakuya told a cheerfully smiling Meiling.

BOOM. CRASH. CRUMBLE. The entire roof of the Scarlet Devil Mansion collapsed.

"SAKUYAAA!" Remilia shrieked.

"Good luck," Meiling told Sakuya who turned as white as sheet.

* * *

_[Guitar music continues until it ends]_

_Shoukajouhatsu Scorching Summer Disappearance is a work of and a trademark of Nekokuro13. All rights reserved. The songs and background music belong to their respective owners. Touhou and the characters of Touhou, meanwhile, are the properties of ZUN and Shanghai Alice._

_A special thanks to all who've made this story possible with their support._

_For Anne and Sarah, my two wonderful little sisters, the Sanae and Suwako of my life._

_[until music ends]_

* * *

Komachi and Shikieiki were having ramen at a restaurant in the human village, while all eyes were fixed on the two unnatural guests.

Suddenly a gap opens behind Shikieiki. A pair of hands shot out and with amazing speed and dexterity for just a pair of hands, they tied Shikieiki to her chair with thick ropes, adding another rope after another.

"What-what-what is this?" the judge struggled, trying to free herself. "Shimenawa? Komachi! Komachi! Why didn't you retrieve them before leaving?"

"Oops," Komachi seemed surprised.

Yukari appeared and sat on the table. "Breakfast's on the Yama this morning!"

"YAY!" Everyone cheered.

"Komachi! Komachi, help me here! Don't just watch, let me go!"

But Komachi raised her hand, saying, "Four more shoyuu ramen, please!" and she even took Shikieiki's bowl of ramen and ate it in front of her superior.

And the Yama could only watch her subordinate finish her own tantan-men ramen. "Uu… this is cruel." A tear appeared at the corner of her eyes.

* * *

_You don't mess with the youkai of boundaries!_

_So how is it? A big thanks to all who've supported me so far, look forward to my future works. And one last request, even if you haven't reviewed this story so far, my final wish is to have one last review of the story as a whole, not to mention, maybe, my writing style, or whatever that comes to mind._

_I'm still pretty much a newbie here, so I beg forgiveness for every mistake or imperfections on my part. I'm still learning, and still very young, as young as Yukari-sama would like to believe she is. :P_

_Again, thank you, thank you, thank you very much! Doumo arigatou gozaimas!_


End file.
